Zaam Arif American, b. 1999

Zaam Arif is largely a self-taught artist who has trained under the tutelage of his parents, both of whom are painters. Arif’s work is shaped by philosophical and literary influences, presenting a deep introspection of the human experience. Portraying enigmatic moments of stillness that shift between interior scenes, portraiture and landscape, Arif’s paintings probe the veracity of memory and images gleaned from the past.

 

Zaam Arif (b. 1999 in Karachi) lives and works in Houston, Texas. Arif's work was exclusively featured in The New Yorker in 2021, making him the youngest Pakistani artist to be published in the magazine. In the same year, his work was selected to be exhibited in the Malamegi Lab Award and was awarded the Malamegi Lab Research Grant in Italy. Arif has shown in both solo and group shows internationally, where he has been critically acclaimed for showing new frontiers in the crossover of South Asian and Western culture, literature, and philosophy. His work can be found in prominent public and private collections, including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; The Rachofsky Collection; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi; Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka; X Museum, Beijing; CC Foundation, Shanghai.