MULTIDISCIPLINARY

SARAH AHMAD

Sarah Ahmad positions immersive art as a conduit to make tangible transformative encounters with the earth. Building on years of engagement with the natural world, she explores themes of displacement and renewal, communal healing, and above all: the sublime, restorative potential of nature. Ahmad creates aesthetic sanctuaries in response to the need for collective healing as we face the social and environmental upheaval shaping our current landscape. She confronts the effects of (dis)connection with the earth. Employing public art in service of community healing, Ahmad’s installations create an ecoart-therapy fusion. As an immigrant Ahmad acts as a facilitator, asking how might we relate to the land outside colonial, capitalist modes of living — of territorial possession or land extraction, but in mutual care.” Her current work rests at the intersection of contested land, eco-therapy, and personal narrative.

A multi-media artist who specializes in large-scale, immersive installations, Ahmad offers ecotherapeutic principles to forge a sense of interconnectedness (“Stories From The Core,” “American Dream”), infused with an exploration of pattern and Sacred Geometry (“Cosmic Veils,” “Fractured Cosmos”). Many explicitly connect the organic forms of nature with geometric figures, illuminating the underlying oneness of creation through recurring patterns: across nature, within the human body, and in the cosmos.

Ahmad has exhibited across the US and internationally, from Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum to Sharjah Museum of Art in UAE; the Asia Triennial in Manchester, UK; “Creativity in Quarantine: Women of the Pandemic,” in Washington, D.C. and Doha, Qatar; the LuminArte Gallery in Dallas; and the Koel Gallery in Karachi, Pakistan among others. Her work has been illustrated in national media outlets (USA Today, NPR’s Gallery America, PBS News Hour), art journals (ARTnews, Bomb), and in academic publications (American Alliance of Museums, Shahzad Bashir’s groundbreaking A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures [MIT, 2022]). In addition to the Tulsa Artist Fellowship (2019-23), Ahmad was awarded the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship and has attended residencies at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, the Paducah Arts Alliance, and the Otis College of Art and Design. She has been nominated for the V&A’s prestigious Jameel prize for contemporary art and design, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Thrive Grant through OVAC. Ahmad is a recurring guest on Tulsa Public Radio and has given myriad artists talks, for example at Crowe Museum of Asian Art in Dallas and as an invited panelist at the 2022 South Asian Literature & Art Festival, Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA. Ahmad received an MFA from the Memphis College of Art; an MA in Education from Union University; and a BA in Fine Arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan.