The highly talented and our very own Khadim Ali joins the mover and shakers of Australia in the NSW Gallery's Board of Trustees.
Bravo Khadim !
(Another) Proud moment for him, the art fraternity and for Pakistan!
Doonside artist appointed gallery trustee
Artist Ali Khadim with his artwork. Picture: Edwina Pickles. (Source: Sun)
On December 24, Mr Ali was named one of two gallery trustees alongside former Harvard University Professor Bruce Dowton, with their joint role to support and advise the Art Gallery of NSW’s management team over the three years from January 1.
‘‘I feel blessed. Really, it’s such a prestigious place. I’m very excited, I’m very thrilled and looking forward to it,’’ Ali said.
From as young as five, Ali began drawing with pieces of charcoal he’d collect from a local bakery in Quetta, after his family sent him to pick up bread. ‘‘I was drawing on the floor and the walls.’’
Years later, he studied at the National College of the Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, where he specialised in miniature painting.
‘‘My work is following the Shahnameh, which is a book which was written in 1080 in the court of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.
‘‘My grandfather was singing this book, which has 60,000 verses, so I grew up listening to the stories.’’
Religion doesn’t stray far from Ali’s canvas. One work, Bamiyan Buddha, explores the destruction of Sixth Century, world heritage-listed Buddhist monuments in central Afghanistan in 2001 by the Taliban.
Arts minister Troy Grant said Ali’s experience would enhance the Art Gallery of NSW’s programming for the diverse communities of Western Sydney.
‘‘This will be an important step for the cultural institutions in working towards delivering increased programs and partnerships in Western Sydney and regional NSW communities,’’ Mr Grant said.
Aside from the Art Gallery of NSW, Ali’s work has been exhibited in the likes of the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art, New York’s Guggenheim and Japan’s Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art.
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Hazara artist Khadim Ali joins the board of the Art Gallery of NSW
Source: The Daily Telegraph
January 01, 2015
Sydney artist Khadim Ali has just been announced as a trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW. Picture: Keryn StevensSource: News Corp Australia
A detail from Haunted Lotus by Khadim Ali (circa 2012). Source: Daily Telegragh
A Hazara artist from Doonside who grew up in the shadow of Taliban persecution will join some of Sydney’s wealthiest movers and shakers on the board of the Art Gallery of NSW.
Ali hopes his appointment, announced by NSW Arts Minister Troy Grant, will encourage other young Australian Hazaras to come to art galleries and to pursue art as a career.
“I’ll try my best to make them connected, to find a way to bring them into the galleries and museums, and to give them a way to become well educated Australian citizens of the future,” Ali said.
There were 5000 or 6000 Hazara families living around Auburn, Merrylands, Granville, Guildford and Parramatta, Ali said. Hazaras, as an ethnic and religious minority, have a long history of persecution in Afghanistan.
Some of Ali’s artwork was displayed at the Art Gallery of NSW earlier this year alongside the blockbuster exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From The National Museum, Kabul.
He is now completing an art commission for the Australian War Memorial at his studio in Woolloomooloo.
“The War Memorial (commission) is on the demonisation and dehumanisation of the ethnic minorities. There are a number of them in Afghanistan and that includes the international troops,” Ali said.
Australian troops were seen as “saviours” by Hazaras in Afghanistan, but the Taliban regarded the Australians as infidels.
Ali’s three-year term as AGNSW board member begins today.
Khadim Ali was raised in exile in Quetta, Pakistan. His grandparents escaped a massacre of Hazaras in Afghanistan in the 1890s, and his parents remained in Pakistan hoping peace would eventually settle on Afghanistan.
Due to Taliban violence against Hazaras, the family never returned.
Ali migrated to Australia in 2009 on a Distinguished Talent Visa.
After Ali’s parents were injured in a suicide bombing in Quetta in 2011, they came to live with him.
“Mr Ali is a contemporary artist whose experience will enhance the Gallery’s programming for the diverse communities of Western Sydney,” NSW Arts Minister Troy Grant said.
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