Visual Artist | Miniature Painter
Based in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Bakhtawar Naqvi graduated in 2025 from the National College of Arts, Rawalpindi, with a degree in Fine Arts. She majored in Miniature Painting, specializing in traditional techniques rooted in South Asian art history.

Artistic Practice
Bakhtawar’s artistic exploration centres on the concept of "hashias"—the ornate borders found in traditional miniature paintings. In classical miniature works, these borders serve a dual purpose: they emphasize the sacredness of the central subject while simultaneously limiting and enclosing it. This duality forms the conceptual foundation of Bakhtawar's practice.

She investigates the paradox of borders—how they offer both protection and confinement, comfort and restriction. Her work visualizes this tension through the use of intricate patterns that appear, dissolve, and reappear across the picture plane, echoing the tangible and intangible boundaries individuals experience in everyday life.

Medium and Technique
Bakhtawar employs traditional gad rang technique on wasli paper, a method deeply rooted in classical miniature painting. She complements this approach with the use of watercolours, allowing for delicate tonal transitions and detailed pattern work that enhance the conceptual themes of concealment, emergence, and boundary.

Conceptual Focus
Through her work, Bakhtawar reinterprets traditional aesthetics to express contemporary concerns. Her paintings reflect on how cultural, emotional, and societal boundaries shape identity, offering a quiet meditation on the duality of restriction and reverence embedded within borders.