Khadim Ali

Born in 1978 Quetta, Pakistan, Khadim Ali currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia and Kabul, Afghanistan. Ali was trained in classical miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore and in mural painting and calligraphy in Tehran. Khadim Ali received his Master of Fine Art (MFA) from University of New South Wales in 2016. He belongs to the minority ethnic Hazara who are the inhabitants of the central part of Afghanistan, where in2001 the colossal sixth-century Buddha statues were destroyed. Rich in traditional and modern motifs of Eastern and Western art-historical references, Ali’s works tell stories about loss (of his own cultural heritage and of human values) and about how meaning shifts as words and images are twisted through ideological adoption. His work traces the history of his ethnicity and other minorities who have been subjected to the discrimination, persecution and ethnic cleansing. Ali’s intricate works depict stories of demons and angels, conquest and war through the lens of the persecuted Hazara community.