Hiba Schahbaz was born in Karachi, Pakistan and lives in Brooklyn, NY. She works with paper, black tea, and water-based pigments as well as oil on linen. She depicts women’s bodies often referencing self-portraiture, creating a space for herself and other women to tell their stories and reclaim their histories. Since migrating to the United States, her practice has expanded from miniature painting to human-scale works.
Schahbaz trained in miniature painting at the National College of Arts, Lahore and received an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute. Her recent exhibitions include include In New York Thinking of You at FLAG Art Foundation (2023), Love Songs at Almine Rech Paris (2023), Fire Figure Fantasy at ICA Miami (2022), Wonder Women at Jeffrey Deitch (2022), Nova at Half Gallery LA (2022), Messages from the 6th Dimension at Almine Rech London (2022), In My Heart, a public art commission for Rockefeller Centre with Art Production Fund (2021).
She has been written about in Whitewall, Artforum, NY Mag, Forbes, The Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Coveteur, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Art Critical amongst other publications. Schahbaz has been an artist resident at The Tang Museum. Mass MocA, StoneLeaf Retreat, The Wassaic Project, the Vermont Studio Center to name a few. She currently serves as a board member for Art Production Fund.