Muhammad Atif Khan

Muhammad Atif Khan graduated (with distinction) in 1997 in Fine Art from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan. In 1998, he was awarded the 'UNESCO-ASHBURG Bursary for Artists', and was appointed artist in residence at the Darat-Al-Funun in Amman, Jordan. He received 'Commonwealth Arts & Crafts Award' in 2007. He was also appointed artist in residence at the Swansea Print Workshop in Wales (2005-06), London Print Studio in England (2008) and Glasgow Print Studio in Scotland (2008).
Khan has shown his work is several prestigious museums like 'Bradford Museum' in UK, 'Aga Khan Museum' in Toronto, Canada, 'Sharjah Art Museum' in UAE and 'Islamic Museum of Australia' in Melbourne, Australia. He has also participated in art workshops in India, Bangladesh, Jordan and UK. He has had several Solo shows in Pakistan, UK, Jordan, Switzerland and India.
The Aga Khan Museum (AKM) in Toronto, Canada commissioned him to create a series of large scale print-based works in 2014. At the same time, he was also commissioned by AKM to create a giant site-specific sculptural installation for the opening show of the newly built museum in Canada.
In 2015, he won the Lahore Biennale Foundation's Open Call competition and developed a monumental site-specific installation 'City within a city' at the Chowk Istanbul in Lahore, Pakistan.
Alongside his artistic practice, Khan is faculty member at the prestigious National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan since 2005.
Artist’s Statement
Muhammad Atif Khan’s work is a homage to Pakistani popular visual culture, paying tribute to its amalgamation of Central Asian/Persian aesthetics and a local South Asian blend of expressive storytelling. Borrowing from and building on a gamut of images and iconography across hundreds of years of Mughal culture and miniature paintings, to Pakistani truck art and a diverse range of visual materials from his everyday life, Atif creates a unique imaginary universe. Juxtaposing eclectic images in contrasting environments subverts their original contextual meaning and opens windows on new stories that speak of his concerns about spiritual and physical worlds, simultaneously.