Saadia Batool (b. 1998, Quetta, Pakistan) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lahore. Her practice engages questions of archive, memory, and migration through storytelling and reimagining archival fragments. Working closely with the social and political histories of the Hazara community, she examines how informal archives are preserved, neglected, or systematically excluded within formal archival structures. She approaches these narratives as palimpsests of time and history, layered with meaning, erasure, and reinterpretation.
Batool’s process is rooted in community engagement and research. She collects and recontextualizes archival fragments, gathers oral histories, and traces familial lineage. Working across painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, and textile, she constructs multi-layered compositions that integrate image, text, and material memory, foregrounding the politics of visibility, absence, and historical representation.
CV
EDUCATION
2019-2022 Bachelor of Fine Art, National College of Arts, Lahore
EXHIBITIONS
2025 Historical Children, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin
2024 Mapping Roots (open studio), Gasworks, London
2024 Woven Out Of Thick Strands (solo exhibition), Khamsa Gallery (virtual)
2024 2024 Inception Grant Show (group show), Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi
2023 The Story Underneath (group show), 8B2 Gallery, Islamabad
2023 In the Realm of Madness (group show), Gallery Full Circle, Karachi
2023 Fine China (group show), Artescape Gallery, Islamabad
2023 Asli Contemporary (group show), Numaish Gah, Lahore
2023 Broadcast Volume I (group show), O Art Space, Lahore
2022 Sir E Koh-e-Nashina (degree show), Zahoor Ul Akhlaq Gallery, Lahore
RESIDENCIES & AWARDS
2025 Art Intensive Study Program, Fire Station Doha
2025 Prince Claus Seed Fund Award
2024 Residency at Gasworks, London
2024 Artist’s Changemaker Program Award by Global Fund for Women
2024 Inception Grant Awardee, Art Incept Gallery, Gurugaram India
2019 Merit Scholarship, National College of Arts, Lahore
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