Abid Hasan is a prominent Karachi-based contemporary artist whose career spans three decades of rigorous material exploration. A 1996 graduate of the Karachi School of Arts, he later served as a Senior Professor at the institution from 2008 to 2012. His practice is characterized by an inquisitive approach to medium, frequently employing metallic foils and specialized painting techniques that have earned critical acclaim for their “painterly sensibilities”.
Hasan has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows across Pakistan and internationally, including exhibitions in New York, Santa Monica, and Mumbai. Notable solo exhibitions include Scintillating Allegories (2020) , Timeline (2018), and Pulse of the Verses (2011), a tribute to the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. His work continues to explore the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary aesthetics, solidifying his presence within the regional art landscape.
Artists statement
Abid Hasan’s drawings return to the immediacy of mark-making, where gesture becomes both thought and form. In these works, line operates as an active force tracing movement, hesitation, and intensity. Forms emerge and recede within layered surfaces of charcoal and pigment, suggesting bodies, landscapes, and fleeting psychological states.
Through repetition, smudging, and erasure, Hasan embraces the instability of the sketch as a space of constant negotiation rather than resolution. The drawings oscillate between abstraction and figuration, allowing ambiguity to remain central. Each surface carries the residue of process, restless strokes, dense textures, and interruptions that reveal a dialogue between control and spontaneity.