Sana Arjumand is a contemporary visual artist from Pakistan, celebrated for her evocative exploration of mysticism, spirituality, and cultural identity. Born in Karachi in 1982, she currently resides and works in Lahore.

Education and Early Career

Arjumand received the High Achievers Award from Cambridge University for Art and Sociology in her Advanced Level studies in 2004. She went on to graduate from the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, in 2005, majoring in painting. From 2008 to 2009, she served as an Assistant Lecturer at NCA's Rawalpindi campus. Her early career was further shaped by international residencies, including a residency at Art Omi, New York, in 2009, and at RM Residency International in Lahore in 2010.

Artistic Themes and Style

Arjumand's practice moves between the political and the metaphysical. Her earlier work engaged directly with gender politics, identity, and Pakistan's national symbols — the flag, the star and crescent — often reframing them through a lens of critique and reclamation. Over time, her focus shifted toward spirituality, beauty, and inner states of being. Her more recent paintings are populated by birds, light, and dream-drawn symbols, most notably the mythic Hoopoe — a messenger figure in Islamic tradition — which she uses to suggest the coexistence of higher dimensions and the human capacity for transcendence.

Exhibitions and Recognition

Arjumand has exhibited extensively both in Pakistan and internationally for over two decades. Her solo exhibitions include shows at Aicon Gallery, New York (2010); Mary Place Gallery, Sydney (2013); Khaas Gallery and O Art Space, Lahore; Canvas Gallery and Chawkandi Gallery, Karachi; and a solo show at the Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina (2017), accompanied by a published catalogue.

Her group exhibitions span major international venues, including the United Nations Headquarters, New York (2016); the Diocesano Museum of Milano, Italy (2018); M7 Museum, Doha (2025); and the Nake Art Museum, Korea (2007). She has participated in numerous editions of Art Dubai and the Dubai Art Fair through Aicon Gallery, as well as the Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Hong Kong Art Fair, and Delhi Art Fair. She represented Pakistan at Art Dubai in both 2025 and 2026, and exhibited at the inaugural Conductor Art Fair, New York, and Asia Now, Paris, in 2024.

In Pakistan, Arjumand has been a longstanding presence at Gallery 6, Islamabad, where she has both exhibited and curated group shows, including Figure 23, Figure 24, and Heaven. She has also participated in both the Karachi Biennale (2019) and the Lahore Biennale (2022), and exhibited an NFT-based body of work, First Light, at The Upside Space in 2022.

Her honours include being named one of the "Top Ten Rising Stars in Pakistan and India" by Art Info, and receiving the Nigaah Art Award for Painting in 2024.

Collections and Publications

Arjumand's work is held in several notable collections, including the Francis Greenburger Collection (New York), the Devi Art Foundation (New Delhi), the DIL Foundation (New York), the Rangoonwala Collection (Karachi), and the Imago Mundi Collection (Italy).

She has been widely written about in the international press, with features in Time Magazine, Art Asia Pacific, Dawn, The News, Hyperallergic, and The Friday Times, among others. Her work was also included in Salima Hashmi's book The Eye Still Seeks: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, and she has been the subject of artist profiles in Art Now Pakistan and The Aleph Review.