About
Abdullah Qureshi (b. 1987, Lahore) is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator. Rooted in traditions of abstraction, he incorporates gestural, poetic, and hybrid methodologies to address autobiography, trauma, and sexuality through painting, filmmaking, and immersive events.
Drawing from childhood memories, everyday surroundings, and intimate encounters, interior objects, abstract landscapes, and faceless portraits are recurring themes in his two-dimensional work. In moving image and durational projects, Qureshi situates artistic concerns from the personal into more expansive conversations on critical histories, visual culture, and social justice. His films take a camp performance-based approach to portray scenes, symbols, and non-linear narratives that extend his visual language, questions on identity, and queer genealogies outside the Western canon.
Working with long-term collaborators, Qureshi’s curating, cultural programming, pedagogy, and writings further articulate his inquiries in feminist, LGBTIQ2S+, decolonial, anti-racist, and migratory discourses. Centering Black and People of Color perspectives, he engages collective modes of creative thinking, organization, and production. Through his ongoing doctoral project, Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias, he examines formations of queer identity and resistance in Muslim migratory contexts.
Qureshi's work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Gallery of Art, Islamabad, Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore, Rossi & Rossi, London, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia, and SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco. He has held numerous positions at cultural and educational institutions, including the British Council Pakistan and National College of Arts, Lahore. Qureshi has conducted lectures, paper readings, and artist talks around the world, including at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), Prague, Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, PRAKSIS, Oslo, Residency Unlimited, New York, University of California, Irvine, Valand Academy, Gothenburg, and Fábrica de Arte Cubano, Havana.
In 2017, Qureshi received the Art and International Cooperation fellowship at Zurich University of the Arts, and in 2018, a research fellowship at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research, Boston. From 2022 - 2024, he was a Lecturer in Fine Art at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne and Visiting Faculty at Central Saint Martins, London. Qureshi is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, Espoo, and Advisor at Transart Institute for Creative Research.
Drawing from childhood memories, everyday surroundings, and intimate encounters, interior objects, abstract landscapes, and faceless portraits are recurring themes in his two-dimensional work. In moving image and durational projects, Qureshi situates artistic concerns from the personal into more expansive conversations on critical histories, visual culture, and social justice. His films take a camp performance-based approach to portray scenes, symbols, and non-linear narratives that extend his visual language, questions on identity, and queer genealogies outside the Western canon.
Working with long-term collaborators, Qureshi’s curating, cultural programming, pedagogy, and writings further articulate his inquiries in feminist, LGBTIQ2S+, decolonial, anti-racist, and migratory discourses. Centering Black and People of Color perspectives, he engages collective modes of creative thinking, organization, and production. Through his ongoing doctoral project, Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias, he examines formations of queer identity and resistance in Muslim migratory contexts.
Qureshi's work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Gallery of Art, Islamabad, Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore, Rossi & Rossi, London, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia, and SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco. He has held numerous positions at cultural and educational institutions, including the British Council Pakistan and National College of Arts, Lahore. Qureshi has conducted lectures, paper readings, and artist talks around the world, including at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU), Prague, Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, PRAKSIS, Oslo, Residency Unlimited, New York, University of California, Irvine, Valand Academy, Gothenburg, and Fábrica de Arte Cubano, Havana.
In 2017, Qureshi received the Art and International Cooperation fellowship at Zurich University of the Arts, and in 2018, a research fellowship at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research, Boston. From 2022 - 2024, he was a Lecturer in Fine Art at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne and Visiting Faculty at Central Saint Martins, London. Qureshi is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, Espoo, and Advisor at Transart Institute for Creative Research.
Refuge Worldwide: Abdullah Qureshi in conversation with Gloria Zein, Syowia Kyambi, Sara Khan, Natasha Jozi and Tasnim Baghdadi, 2022.
Art of the Working Class: Lukas Treiber, 2022.
Kone Foundation: Anna Tommola, 2021
AsiaArtPacific: Rebecca Close, 2019
Vice: Pallavi Pundir, 2019
Hyperallergic: Iman Sultan, 2019
ArtNow Pakistan: Veera Rustomji, 2019
Manshoor: Ismail Al-Bahar, 2018
Art of the Working Class: Lukas Treiber, 2022.
Kone Foundation: Anna Tommola, 2021
AsiaArtPacific: Rebecca Close, 2019
Vice: Pallavi Pundir, 2019
Hyperallergic: Iman Sultan, 2019
ArtNow Pakistan: Veera Rustomji, 2019
Manshoor: Ismail Al-Bahar, 2018
Philadelphia Gay News: Larry Nichols, 2018
Daily Times: Saulat Ajmal, 2018
Taz: Ingo Arend, 2018
San Francisco Chronicle: Ryan Kost, 2018
Youlin Magazine: Sana Shahid, 2017
Dawn: Saira Dar, 2017; Aziz Sohail, 2016; Atteqa Ali, 2015
The Herald: Iftikhar Dadi, 2017
The News: Qalandar Bux Memon, 2017; Ali Sultan, 2017
Daily Times: Saulat Ajmal, 2018
Taz: Ingo Arend, 2018
San Francisco Chronicle: Ryan Kost, 2018
Youlin Magazine: Sana Shahid, 2017
Dawn: Saira Dar, 2017; Aziz Sohail, 2016; Atteqa Ali, 2015
The Herald: Iftikhar Dadi, 2017
The News: Qalandar Bux Memon, 2017; Ali Sultan, 2017