Sydney, Australia
Although based in Sydney since 2010, Khadim Ali was born in Pakistan where he grew up as an Afghan refugee – his family having fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban. After studying mural painting and calligraphy in Tehran, Ali went on to earn a BFA in traditional miniature painting at the National College of Arts, Lahore. His background impacts hugely on his richly associative work, which often speaks to a profound sense of loss: he professes to being haunted by the Taliban destruction of two large 6th-century Buddha statues in Bamiyan, close to his ancestral home. Ali has exhibited widely and will present new work at the end of this year at Milani Gallery, Brisbane.