Ali Kazim

New watercolours depicting solitary figures and circus acts will be exhibited together with a series of new etchings, each work illustrating a different letter from the Urdu alphabet. Ali Kazim (b. 1979) invites the audience to explore the rich history and culture of South Asia through the Urdu language, whilst also highlighting the urgency of maintaining a connection to our native languages in an era of migration and exile.

Kazim who lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan, presents his first ever print portfolio, Alphabets, 2025, consisting of nineteen etchings and aquatints. Each print in the series illustrates a different letter from the Urdu alphabet, using the language as an axis to delve into the rich expanse of the region, its iconography, culture, flora and fauna.

In the same way that Urdu spans Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh with origins informed by Hindi, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Punjabi - Kazim’s approach is also diverse and varied, encompassing South Asian miniature painting, East Asian wash techniques and most recently, European etching.

The artist’s new etchings are strikingly intricate. For a pair of prints, Circus Ka Sher I and Circus Ka Sher II, the artist has etched a flaming circus hoop, and a tiger suspended mid-leap, captured before jumping through the ring. This scene also plays out in two new colourful watercolours, each depicting the final scene of the tiger moving through the hoop.

Further watercolours in the exhibition include Coolie, 2025, a solitary single figure painted on a background of pure saturated yellow. A stranger Kazim has encountered on the street, the artwork title and the identification number on the figure’s arm band, indicates he may be railway porter.

In Tipu’s Tiger, 2025, Kazim has etched the famed eighteenth-century automaton that shows a British soldier being mauled by a tiger. Commissioned by the Tipu Sultan in the eighteenth-century, this important artefact, in the style of Indian folk art and made by French artisans, represents the imperial conflicts in the region at the time. Kazim reclaims this object, currently housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, relocating it within his graphic oeuvre to highlight different facets of history.

In Koh-i-Noor, 2025, Kazim portrays the iconic Indian diamond that became part of the British Crown Jewels, using a faint, forensic outline to address extractive colonial histories. Kazim illustrates the influences of modern history too; Waraq, 2025, shows a map of Pakistan and India divided by the book’s central binding, conveying the complexities and violence that ensued following the 1947 Partition.

The artist also references multiple faiths and ethnic groups within his work, from Buddhism to Sufi Islam. In Hudhud, 2025, a hoopoe bird with an intricate crown of feathers is depicted in flight. In this etching, Kazim highlights the legendary story of the Hudhud in the Qur’an and the hoopoe bird from Sufi poet Farid-ud-Din Attar’s seminal twelfth-century work, Conference of the Birds.

Kazim’s etchings and watercolours also illustrate the beauty in the mundane, from clothes on a washing line to roti flatbreads - all of the artist’s subjects are given the same meticulous attention. In Theekriaan, 2025, Kazim depicts the shards of a broken tea set. The artist’s ancestral village of Pattoki sits near land which previously hosted the Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, with traces of the past becoming visible on the surface, particularly after the monsoon season.

Kazim’s practice is concerned with materiality, informed by the landscapes and ancient civilisations of Pakistan and the subcontinent. The artist who began by assisting cinema billboard painters when still at school, later studied nursing while maintaining his drawing practice in the evenings. His slow and contemplative approach responds to the depths of history; his watercolours often take months to complete, made with layers upon layers of thin washes to create an uncanny depth of texture that capture the finest of details.

The exhibition documents the entangled histories of Urdu across South Asia and the rest of the world.

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