Karim Ahmed Khan

B. 1990, Hunza Valley

'My practice explores deforestation, climate change and the resilience of nature through charcoal, gouache and miniature-inspired techniques. Using charcoal as a metaphor for the life cycle, I depict trees, sprouting leaves and flowers as symbols of destruction, renewal and hope. Influenced by global environmental and human crises, my work reflects on the fragility of life and the possibility of healing. Through layers, fissures and organic forms, I explore the idea that, much like nature, humanity possesses an inherent ability to recover, rebuild and find light in moments of darkness.'

Karim Ahmed Khan is a Pakistani visual artist born in 1990 in Hunza Valley, who graduated with Honors in Fine Arts (Sculpture) from the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, in 2015. He lives and works between Lahore and Hunza, and serves as visiting faculty at NCA, teaching sculpture. His practice centers on charcoal as a primary medium, often paired with miniature-painting techniques like gouache on wasli and paper, rendering bare branches punctuated by the occasional flower or leaf as symbols of transformation and regeneration in nature. This has expanded to include site-specific sculptural installations made directly in the forests of Hunza, using natural materials to make the fragile interdependence of ecosystems physically visible.

Underlying the work is a preoccupation with the effects of global warming on the forests and habitats of his home valley, a concern shaped by watching the region's glaciers shrink from vast rivers of ice into fragments within his own lifetime, leaving the Hunza Valley increasingly vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods. Rather than staying purely elegiac, his work is animated by a belief that nature holds a unique capacity to heal and regenerate itself, a capacity he extends to human resilience as well, so the imagery of loss is consistently balanced by signs of persistence and repair.

Ahmed has exhibited nationally and internationally, including a recent group show in Lisbon, and at the Alhamra Art Gallery in Lahore (2021), the Pakistan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai (2021-22), and the Aga Khan Centre Gallery in London (2023). In 2024, he was commissioned by the Lahore Biennale Foundation for LB03, presenting Still Life, a large-scale charcoal drawing on wasli paper of a sea buckthorn shrub. He is a recipient of the Arjumand Painting Award (2021) and the Nigaah Art Award (2024), and is represented by O Art Space, Lahore.