Art Divvy Exhibitions develops large-scale shows of contemporary Pakistani art and culture in public spaces. In 2019, Foundation Art Divvy, with the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, presented Naiza Khan: Manora Field Notes, the inaugural Pavilion of Pakistan at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The Foundation organised and curated Sagar Theatre on Queen’s Road at the Plaza Theatre, Lahore, (2020) and I, too, am a part of this history at Fakir Khana Museum (FKM), Lahore (2018), both collateral events to the Lahore Biennale. Before this, the Foundation exhibited Aisha Khalid & Imran Qureshi: Two Wings to Fly, Not One at the National Art Gallery, PNCA, Islamabad (2017), the first museum exhibition in Pakistan of these leading contemporary artists.
In 2020, the Foundation expanded into film by launching Divvy Film Festival, an annual festival hosting independent films by Pakistani filmmakers which is now in its third year and across three major cities. Each evening of the Divvy Film Festival is curated carefully to create an experience for the audience. The films we screen cover a multitude of themes that tap into universally shared experiences and memories. In order to encourage more scholarship on and easy access to contemporary South Asian art practices, Foundation Art Divvy has established Art Divvy Conversations, a series of online recorded conversations with practitioners across South Asia. The objective is to preserve artistic practices and build an accessible primary research archive. The series includes approximately 100 conversations and counting.
Our Team
Zahra Khan - Creative Director is a curator of contemporary South Asian art. She is the Creative Director of Foundation Art Divvy, through which she led and curated the first official Pavilion of Pakistan at the Venice Biennale 2019, Manora Field Notes.
In an effort to expand Pakistani art, culture and narrative’s global reach, as well as transform local attitudes towards the creative fields, Foundation Art Divvy provides a platform at an institutional level, locally and internationally to the arts from Pakistan. In addition to an annual large scale institutional exhibition, its latest venture has been the Divvy Film Festival, celebrating independent Pakistani cinema as well as Art Divvy Conversations, a series of insta-live interviews with artists across South Asia.
Zahra is lead curator at Satrang Art Gallery, Islamabad and has worked at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York and Sotheby’s, London & Blain|Southern, London.
Zahra is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received a Master’s in the History of Art and Archaeology from SOAS, London.
Asma Khan - Board Director is the Founder and Director of Satrang Art Gallery at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad and the SerenArts Programme, two unique enterprises dedicated to showcasing Pakistani art and heritage. She is a Director for Foundation Art Divvy, an organisation established to support and develop large-scale public exhibitions of contemporary Pakistani art. Asma is a member of the Board of Governors of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, the country’s leading arts institution.
Over the last 20 years, Asma has actively led support for The Citizens Foundation, a charity that provides quality education to the underprivileged across Pakistan. She has also been the long-term Chair of the Islamabad Supporters of TCF over this period of time.
Zahra Jadoon - Divvy Film Festival Coordinator (b. 1997) is an Art Educator and a Visual Artist from Abbottabad. She graduated with honors from the prestigious National College of Arts, Rawalpindi in 2019 majoring in Sculpture. Right after graduating Jadoon started working as an Assistant Curator at the Satrang Gallery in Serena Hotel, Islamabad from 2019 to 2021.
Her work incorporates the idea of how women are perceived in society nowadays which she portrays by making the bare skin of a human in her paintings and by the use of latex in her sculptures. She has also conducted workshops in different disciplines of art, alongside which she also worked as a freelance artist and one of the core members of the Harfun studio.
She is currently the assistant to Creative Director at Foundation Art Divvy and lives and works in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Emaan Pirzada - Exhibition Coordinator (b. Hyderabad, Sindh) She graduated from the National College of Arts, Rawalpindi in 2021 with honours in Fine Arts (Miniature Painting).
Pirzada’s work has been part of numerous prestigious shows and festivals in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, South Korea and Ras Al Khaimah UAE.
Alongside, She had the honour of representing Pakistan in the ‘Painting Old Buildings’ project in Cairo, Egypt. Shortly after graduation, she worked with the MEF International Schools in Istanbul, Turkey.
Last year, Pirzada worked as an Assistant Curator (2021-2022) at Satrang Gallery, Serena Hotels, Islamabad and recently, she has been shortlisted for the TAF Awards 2023.
Mamoona Riaz - Consultant is a visual artist, art educator and a creative practitioner with professional experience ranging over many fields. She received her BFA degree from National College of Arts with Honors and the prestigious Haji Sharif Prize and her M.A/M.Phill degree in Art Education from Beaconhouse National University with the prized UMISAA (Unesco Madanjeet Singh Institute of South Asian Arts) scholarship. She is also a finalist of the highly coveted Sovereign Asian Art Prize for 2021.
Over the period she has worked in the curatorial capacities with Satrang Gallery and the NCA art gallery and is also currently serving as a consultant for Foundation Art Divvy. She also serves as Art Editor for an international publishing literary journal Papercuts. Riaz continues to serve her alma mater and has been teaching at NCA as a professor of Miniature Painting and other courses designed specifically for new learning and pedagogical practices after her M.Phill in Art Ed. She is also a founding member of Divan-e-Aam, an art collective focusing on art and sustainability, alongside works on various side projects and commissions.
With her professional portfolio she is also focused on her art practice and has been continuously working and exhibiting her work at important national and international platforms, moreover her work is in permanent collection of eminent national and international art collectors.
Noor Fatima - Consultant is a visual artist with immense involvement in promotion of art and culture through curation, art therapy, art practice etc, with a wide range of experience over various creative branches. She graduated from the National College of the Arts in 2017 with a major in sculpture. Her career can only be describes as diverse and this has allowed her to explore different aspects about art and employ a wide variety of techniques to her approach.
Right after graduation she was involved in numerous sculpture commissioned projects for various important organizations and institutes including Bahria Town, Lok Virsa Heritage Museum, Army boards in Taxila, Mona, Islamabad, Abbotabad and Lahore. After that she started working as an assistant curator at the prestigious Satrang Gallery in Islamabad which led to many more exciting curation based jobs and projects.
She is currently working at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts as an art curator and has curated a wide variety of notable shows under her belt. Fatima is the co-founder of 'Lavender Beings' a wellness organization primarily focused on yoga, meditation and creative arts therapy. Alongside this she curates independent shows Nationally and Internationally. With her professional portfolio she is also focused on her art practice and exhibitions.
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