Rukhe Neelofer Zaidi

I live my art as a medium of meditation and catharsis.
The size, scale, colors, technique and subjects of my paintings serve as a reflection of - and often a deflection from - internal thoughts, struggles, and personal evolution. For me, each individual action of choosing a color, mixing paints on a palette, and putting brushstrokes to canvas is a performative ritual of mindful presence and an escape from both past and future. In those moments, I become completely free from myself, and yet there is nothing other or more than me in what I am painting.
In the past I enjoyed painting human subjects. More recently, I find myself focusing more on nature not only for its beauty and magnificence and its flora and fauna but also as a framework for the human form. This stems from a reaction to the deteriorating socio-political conditions in our country. Social media and the national news is replete with images of desperate and angry people crying for justice, safety, and basic human rights that remain depressingly out of reach. In a social environment that is politically divided and prevalently negative, I choose to turn my gaze to more hopeful and natural ways of being.
Painting beautiful and serene subjects is a choice I have made not on...

• Post Graduate Certificate in Professional Development from The College of St Marks and St. John, University of Exeter. UK. (64% Marks; Merit 1st cohort and 75% marks; Distinction 2nd cohort) July 2007
• Observer at the Certificate in Professional Studies in Education (Bradford University) May 2005
• Master of Fine Arts (Painting, 1st class 1st; Gold medalist) Punjab University, 1982
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting, 1st class) Punjab University, 1980

• Solo show at Art One Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, December 2022
• Solo show at Nomad Art Gallery Islamabad, Pakistan, April 2019
• Solo show at Artciti Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, March 2019
• Solo show at VM Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, November, 2018
• Exhibition at Print and Paper Museum Tartu, Estonia, July, 2018
• Solo Show at Artciti Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, Feb. 2018
• Solo at Ejaz Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan, November, 2017
• Exhibition of work at Djerassi, USA, May 2017
• Group show 2016 Oslo, Norway
• Open Gallery 2015 Onishi, Japan
• Group exhibition at Nomad on Women’s Day 2015
• Solo Exhibition at a private gallery in Lahore, March 2013
• Group Exhibition Istanbul, Turkey 2011
• Nomad Art Gallery, Islamabad, March, 2010
• Kanpur, India, Nov. 2008
• Nomad Art Gallery, Islamabad, March, 2008
• Global Arts Village, New Delhi, India, Nov. 2007
• Pakistan National Council of Art, Islamabad, 2007
• Art Exhibition on ‘Indo-Pak friendship’ 2005
• Nomad Art Gallery, Islamabad, Sep. 2005
• World Bank Building, Islamabad, Dec. 2003
• Nomad Art Gallery, Islamabad, Sep. 2003
• All Pakistan Artists’ Annual Exhibitions, Islamabad, Since 1982
• Punjab Artists Association’s Annual Exhibitions, Lahore, Since 1985
• Slide sho...