Born in 1973 in Lahore, Pakistan, Faiza Butt trained at the National College of Arts in Lahore and later obtained a master’s degree with distinction at the Slade School of Art in London. She also received a teaching certificate from the Institute of Education. Faiza Butt’s practice, which includes drawing, painting and sculpture, addresses the dichotomy between contemporary culture and history, taking inspiration from cultural iconography and traditions via a global smorgasbord and imbuing them with biographical elements and psychological truths from modern life.

She has had various solo shows, including Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2024); Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong (2023); Grosvenor Gallery, London (2021); the Attenborough Art Centre, UK (2016); the Art Exchange, UK (2015); Rossi & Rossi, London (2014); Canvas Gallery, Karachi (2014); Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2012); and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York (2012), among others. In 2021, a solo presentation of her paintings and sculptures was shown by Vadehra Art Gallery at Art Basel OVR: Portals. Her mid-career retrospective Paracosm opened at the New Art Exchange in April 2015. It travelled to the Art Exchange at the University of Essex in November 2015, then opening at the Attenborough Centre of Arts (University of Leicester) in October 2016, as the final chapter of its tour. The specially commissioned installation ‘Paracosm’ was shown at the Alchemy Festival at South Bank, London in May 2017.

Butt has been invited to exhibit at the prestigious Venice Biennale, on three occasions. Her show Personal Structures was on display, at Palazzo Bembo, at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale 2024.

She has also participated in many group shows, including Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2021); Grosvenor Gallery, London (2020); Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts (2020); New Arts Exchange, Nottingham (2019); Aicon Gallery, New York (2019); Free World Centre, London (2016); Gujral Foundation, New Delhi (2015); Leila Heller Chelsea Gallery, New York (2014); SOAS, University of London (2014); and the Contemporary Arts Centre, Boston (2013), among others.

Her work can also be found in private and public collections, including the British Museum, London; the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; and the Burger Collection, Hong Kong, to name a few.

Butt was awarded a UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary and was artist-in-residence at the Bartle Arts Trust (BAT) in Durban, South Africa, in 1995. She was nominated for the Jameel Prize by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 2011, and was a finalist for the Sovereign Art Prize, Hong Kong, in 2009.

The artist lives and works in London, UK. (Biography courtesy Vadehra Gallery)