Saba Khan’s multimedia work traffics in the language of memorial, monument and public art. From lush beaded paintings of cakes to miniature dioramas of a bureaucrat’s boring office; from flashing LED signs of stereotyped “Islamic Art” to embellished textile banners honoring the mundane generator, she balances grandeur, artifice and satire in order to explore the cracks in the facade of life in her native Lahore, Pakistan.
Saba holds a BFA from National College of Arts, Lahore and an MFA from Boston University, on Fulbright Scholarship. Her work was included in the 2018 Karachi Biennale and the 2020 Lahore Biennale. Her solo exhibitions include ONE (2019) at Contemporary and Modern Art Museum and Zinda-dil-a’an-e-Lahore (2020) – Billboard Project an initiative of Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF).
In 2014, she founded Murree Museum Artist Residency, an artist-led initiative in a British colonial hill-station, and in 2020 the satirical artist collective Pak Khawateen Painting Club was born. She recently won grants from Sharjah Art Foundation (2020), Graham Foundation (2020) and the British Council (2020, 2022). She participated at Onassis Air (2022) and will be in Sharjah Biennale 15 (2023) under Pak Khawateen Painting Club. Saba teaches at the National College of Arts and lives in Lahore, Pakistan.