Atif Khan
By and large, Muhammad Atif Khan’s work is a homage to local popular visual culture, paying tribute to its amalgamation of Central Asian/Persian aesthetics and a local South Asian blend of expressive storytelling. Borrowing from and building on a gamut of images and iconography across hundreds of years of Mughal culture and miniature paintings, to local truck art and a diverse range of visual materials from his everyday life, he creates an imaginary universe. Juxtaposing eclectic images in contrasting environments subverts their original contextual meaning and opens windows on new stories that speak of Atif’s concerns about spiritual and physical worlds, simultaneously.
Muhammad Atif Khan graduated with Distinction in 1997 in Fine Art from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan. An illustrious career spanning 27 years has seen a plethora of international awards, residencies and workshops. In 1998, he was awarded the 'UNESCO-ASHBURG Bursary for Artists', and was appointed Artist in Residence at the Darat-Al-Funun in Amman, Jordan. He received the ‘Commonwealth Arts & Crafts Award' in 2007.
Atif Khan was Artist in Residence at the Swansea Print Workshop in Wales (2005-06), London Print Studio in England (2008) and Glasgow Print Studio in Scotland (2008). He has shown his work in several prestigious museums; 'Bradford Museum' in UK, ‘Aga Khan Museum' in Toronto, Canada, 'Sharjah Art Museum' in UAE and 'Islamic Museum of Australia' in Melbourne, Australia. He has also participated in art workshops in Bangladesh, India, Jordan and UK. He has had 23 Solo shows in Pakistan, UK, Jordan, India and Switzerland.
In 2022, he was appointed co-curator of the Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh which is the oldest and largest art biennale in Asia. In 2015, he won the Lahore Biennale Foundation's Open Call competition; 'Intersections' and developed a large scale, site-specific installation ‘City within a City' at the Chowk Istanbul of Mall Road in Lahore, Pakistan. Also, Atif won the ADA Award; 2020-21 in the category of Digital Arts and Nigaah Art Award; 2023 in the category of Printmaking.
Alongside his independent art practice, Atif serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine Art at his alma mater, National College of Arts in Lahore.