Bridging Worlds: The Curatorial Dialogue Between Imran Mir and Bertina Lopes at the 2025 São Paulo Biennial
When curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung placed Pakistani artist Imran Mir alongside Mozambican-Italian painter Bertina Lopes at the 2025 São Paulo Biennial, the pairing revealed profound parallels in postcolonial modernism. Both transformed geometric abstraction into vehicles for cultural resistance, synthesizing local traditions with international artistic languages to assert identity through exile and displacement.
Imran Mir Selected for the 36th São Paulo Biennale
Pakistani modernist pioneer joins 120 international artists at world's second-oldest art biennale
The late artist's geometric abstractions from "Seventh Paper on Modern Art" will be showcased at the prestigious four-month exhibition in Brazil, continuing his legacy of challenging artistic boundaries and inspiring global audiences.
Imran Mir's Work Featured in MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today
Pioneering Pakistani artist Imran Mir's groundbreaking work is being showcased at Qatar Museums' landmark exhibition "MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today." Known for his bold minimalist and modernist approach, Mir structured his artistic practice around what he called "Papers" on modern art, creating twelve distinct bodies of work that challenged conventional artistic boundaries through experimental use of color and planar fractures. The exhibition, running from November 2024 to January 2025 at the National Museum of Qatar, presents Mir's work alongside other pivotal figures who shaped Pakistan's artistic landscape over the past eight decades.
On view @ Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen
The exhibition Colours and Lines in Motion brings together three abstract artists to foster a dialogue spanning an arc from the mid-twentieth century to the recent past. A concentration on colours, lines and planes along with the radical rejection of any manner of representationalism describe the narrative thread that is shared by Verena Loewensberg, Imran Mir and Anton Stankowski. All three also have in common their personal exchange with the artist and designer Max Bill. Nonetheless, in each case their works testify to a respectively individual vocabulary of abstraction that fuse local cultural influences and biographical circumstances, but also contemporary history.
Abstracting Parables, 2022. sonsbeek20→24, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Photographs from the opening of Sedje Hémon, Imran Mir, Abdias Nascimento, Abstracting Parables, 2022. sonsbeek20→24, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Exhibiting at Stedelijk Museum in Summer 2022
The next stop on the journey of sonsbeek 20→24, the international Arnhem-based art manifestation, will be Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. This exhibition brings together three historical artistic positions, that of: Dutch-Jewish painter and composer Sedje Hémon, Afro-Brazilian painter, poet, essayist, dramatist and member of Parliament Abdias Nascimento, and Pakistani artist and designer Imran Mir.
2019 Imran Mir Art Prize Winner Announced
The Imran Mir Art Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of the fourth cycle of the Imran Mir Art Prize, Noormah Jamal and Haider Ali Naqvi. This year we received our highest number of applications so far, making it a particularly competitive year. At the end, the jury decided to jointly award the prize for this cycle and both the artists will have an opportunity for a solo exhibition in 2020 in Karachi.
2018 Imran Mir Art Prize Winner Announced!
The Imran Mir Art Prize seeks to recognize emerging art practitioners in Pakistan, who demonstrate extraordinary promise and talent. The prize was instituted in 2014 to honor the legacy of the late artist Imran Mir. For the third cycle of the prize, the Imran Mir Art Foundation collaborated with the Lahore Biennial Foundation, and the award ceremony took place at the historic Lahore Fort during the opening ceremony of the inaugural Lahore Biennial.
artnow | Rioting to Life: Saira Danish review 'Wallflower'
An aspiring young artist drew on her sensibilities to come forward with a subject that long desired an ovation. Jovita Alvares’s solo show Wallflower reconnoiters the powerful presence of the Bougainvillea plant signifying it’s potent and commandeering relationship with the concrete structures of urbanization.
The winner of the Imran Mir Art Prize exhibits her latest work
The Imran Mir Art Foundation presents ‘Wallflower’, a solo exhibition by the winner of the second cycle of the Imran Mir Art Prize, Jovita Alvares. The Imran Mir Art Foundation encourages and promotes young artists of Pakistan, true to the legacy of the late artist Imran Mir.
Art Now Pakistan: Imran Mir Alchemist of Line
This exhibition of more than fifty works by the artist brings together some of his earliest works as well as his most recent explorations of form and space. “The Alchemist of Line” is curated by Nasreen Askari, Director of the Mohatta Palace Museum, and Durriya Kazi, the Head of the Department of Visual Studies at the Karachi University, who not only take us on a journey through four decades of the artist’s illustrious career but manage to highlight new narratives through the curatorial decisions they have made. The exhibit is divided into five rooms, each leading into the next, guiding the audience across a thematic presentation that creates new points of interest in the artist’s oeuvre.
Imran Mir: The Alchemist of Line Opening Weekend
We can’t wait to welcome you all to the Mohatta Palace Museum for the exhibition Imran Mir: The Alchemist of Line.
Imran Mir: The Alchemist of line is presented by the Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi, in the first-floor galleries of the Museum. The exhibition was curated by Nasreen Askari, the Director of Mohatta Palace Museum, and Prof. Durriya Kazi, Head of Department of Visual Studies at the University of Karachi. A previously published fully illustrated book accompanies the exhibition with original essays on the artist’s work.
The exhibition will be open to the public and on view from October 21, 2017 to October 22, 2018, at the Mohatta Palace Museum. The opening preview will take place on October 20, 2017. The opening of the exhibition aligns with the first Karachi Art Biennial.
Dawn News - Salwat Ali: About the Imran Mir Art Award
The concept of establishing an art foundation to preserve and foster an artist’s creative legacy is not a norm here and such institutions are few and far between. As and when such an initiative is undertaken by concerned individuals, expectations are raised and hopes are pinned on the foundation’s worth and ability to generate an art momentum.
CAMOUFLAGE by Artist Ayesha Siddiqui dedicated to Imran Mir
On January 6, Pakistani Artist Ayesha Siddiqui showcased her latest exhibition CAMOUFLAGE at the Koel Gallery in Karachi, Pakistan. The exhibition was dedicated to Imran Mir.
Imran Mir Art Foundation Awards Noureen Ali
We were happy to announce that Noureen Ali, a graduate from The Department of Fine Arts embodied the values and work ethic of Imran Mir and was the first to receive the Imran Mir Art Award. Here seen with Chairperson IMAF, Nighat Mir, Trustee IMAF, Gibran Mir and Executive Director IVS, Samina Khan.
IMAF Award Nomination
In November 2015, a panel of jurors consisting of architects, artists, art critics and educators came together to nominate young artists from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture to receive the Imran Mir Art Foundation Award of Excellence.
Happy Birthday Pakistan!
Mera Inaam Pakistan.... Mera Paigham Pakistan...
Over two decades ago, on 14th August, Imran Mir brought together a group of highly creative individuals under the patronage of MCB Pakistan, to produce a piece of history that would present Pakistan in all its beauty and diversity to the people of the world in a different light.
Watch the video here.
Inauguration of Imran Mir Art Foundation
On 23rd July 2015, The Imran Mir Art Foundation (IMAF) was inaugurated before an audience of art lovers, art promoters, writers, curators, gallery owners and friends, in Mir’s studio and home.
Video: The Life and Times of Imran Mir
Contemporaries, colleagues and people mentored by Imran Mir remember his life, work and contributions to the creative field in Pakistan.
IVS students visit Imran Mir's studio home
Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture students visited Imran Mir's studio home.
The students explored Imran Mir's studio home designed by world-renowned Sri Lankan Architect C. Anjalendran and preeminent Pakistani architect Shahid Abdullah.
