May 24, 2024 – August 18, 2024
Humaira Abid, Searching for Home, 2016–17.
Pine wood (carved) and red wood stain.
Objects: dimensions vary, installation: 19” x 72” x 36
In Humaira Abid’s exquisitely haunting exhibition Searching for Home, the artist’s sculpted wooden creations invoke the troubling specter of the global refugee crisis and its trails of ruined lives. Inspired by real accounts of displaced people- all personally researched and documented by Abid- the exhibition hints at untold tragedies surrounding the collateral victims of persecution, political conflicts, ethnic cleansing, and natural disasters, a disproportionate number of whom are women and girls. Through her chosen medium of wood, Abid unleashes the innate properties of the material to suggest the ineffable weight and gravity of this continuing humanitarian crisis.
Humaira Abid: Searching For Home was curated by Jennifer-Navva Milliken. It was organized by Bellevue Arts Museum (Bellevue, WA) and the Museum for Art in Wood (Philadelphia, PA). Works in this exhibition were made possible in part by grants to the artist from 4Culture and Artist Trust, with support from Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWa) of Seattle.
Special exhibition support provided by:
Fiza and Mansoor Shah
Shaheen and Anil Nanji
Hassan Ali and Farwa Malik – Ravian Group
Nareen Haroon
Aqueela and Saleen Jaffer
Aziz and Deanna Khan
Yasmin and Javed Rashid
Tahira and Shabbir Ali
Ruquiya and Faisal Khan
Shahid Kamran and Family
Pakistani Arts Council of USC Pacific Asia Museum