Sara Vaqar Pagganwala received her BFA (hons) from Central St. Martins, University of the Arts, London in 2013 and is a multidisciplinary artist and curator. She has been a part of several group shows locally and internationally. Her work explores the construction and rearrangement of different materials and properties and asks questions about form and control. Her passion for the culinary and arts remains porous in her practice, forming mergers between the two. She also investigates notions of the body and identity as a repetitive constant, especially in her performative work.
Pagganwala was an assistant curator for the inaugural Karachi Biennale 2017 as well as a participating artist for both the Karachi and Venice Biennale in the same year. Her debut curatorial show was Mix Tape (1) (2018), an exhibition of contemporary performance art from all over Pakistan at Canvas Gallery, Karachi. Pagganwala has since been a part of curating numerous shows in Karachi including Quantum City Territory | Space | Place (2019), which was the first International Public Art Festival at the iconic Karachi Port Trust (co- curated with Amin Gulgee and Zarmeene Shah); Lal Jadoo (2020), an exhibition of performance art at Karachi House and a part of the second International Public Art Festival which was aired live (co- curated by Amin Gulgee); The Trojan Donkey (2020), a virtual international performance show happening simultaneously in over twenty eight different cities around the world (co- curated by Amin Gulgee and Adam Fahy- Majeed); If These Walls Could Talk (2020), a drive through new media show (co-curated by Amin Gulgee).
Pagganwala currently lives and works in Karachi. She has worked as an assistant curator at Canvas Gallery and is as part of the adjunct faculty in the Liberal Arts department at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, where she pioneered an academic learning of performance art in Pakistan.