Current Fellow

Sobia Ahmad

(she/her)

2024–2026

sobiaahmad.com @sobia.ahmad.art

Biography

Sobia Ahmad (b. 1992; Punjab, Pakistan) was raised in Pakistan and moved to the United States at the age of fourteen. Her interdisciplinary art practice investigates the transcendental power of everyday experiences, objects, and rituals through photography, time-based media, and social practice. She is influenced by traditions of devotional poetry and oral storytelling associated with Sufi mysticism. The Wise-Fool archetype from Sufism, which values simplicity and improvisation over intellectual certainty, guides her practice. Her process-based work, often created in domestic and social settings, engages with themes of relationality, reciprocity, embodied knowledge, material experimentation, and DIY ethos. She employs many analog methods—including weaving, participatory workshops, and eco-friendly photochemical techniques—to explore how slowness and tactility can activate our inner lives and enhance our engagement with socio-political and ecological issues.

Ahmad earned her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (2024), and a BA in Studio Art and BS in Community Health from the University of Maryland, College Park (2016, 2015). Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY; Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA; Queen Mary University, London, England; Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA; and the Women Filmmakers Festival at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. She has attended the SOMA Summer residency, Mexico City, Mexico (2024), and Halcyon Arts Lab’s socially engaged art fellowship, Washington, DC (2019–2020).

“One Big Eye” (2024), 16mm film transferred to HD, sound, 18 minutes and 57 seconds, installation view, made in collaboration with Benny Shaffer. Courtesy of artist
“To become dust that sings its melody to the night” (2024), gelatin silver print processed in a coffee-based developer. Courtesy of artist.
“DEVOTIONS: The Breath within the Breath” (2024), accordion book created from a scan of a single roll of 35mm film; inkjet print on archival Japanese asuka paper, overall dimensions variable; 360 inches wide. Courtesy of artist
“As One They Quake I” (2024), inkjet print on archival Japanese asuka paper from a scan of 35mm reversal film negative. Courtesy of artist
“Alchemy of the Everyday” (2023), looped B/W Super8 film (hand-processed with caffenol) and 33 monotype prints. Courtesy of artist.

Past Exhibition

Kinetic 2025: No Place Like Home

November 15–17, 2024

The third Kinetic catalog debuts with “No Place Like Home,” a featured exhibition at Umbrella Art Fair.

Past Exhibition

new.now. (2025)

February 8–March 15, 2025

Hamiltonian Artists’ distinguished 2024–26 fellows Sobia Ahmad, June Canedo De Souza, Jermaine “jET” Carter, Nilou Kazemzadeh, and Fargo Nissim Tbakhi exhibit the work they plan to expand upon during their two-year fellowship. …

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