10 Emerging Pakistani Artists to Watch in 2026
Pakistan’s emerging art scene is shaped by artists working across painting, drawing, miniature practice, printmaking and sculpture. The following ten artists represent distinct approaches already visible within the contemporary landscape. This is not a ranking, but a collector’s introduction to practices worth following closely.
1. Mariya Shaikh
Mariya Shaikh builds intimate compositions through acrylic pigments on Wasli and Arches paper. Repeated marks, architectural forms and carefully controlled surfaces give her works a meditative sense of accumulation.
2. Khizra Tanvir
Miniature-trained Khizra Tanvir works with the visual language of still life, memory and close observation. Her refined handling of paper-based media gives ordinary objects a heightened emotional presence.
3. Isra Noman
Isra Noman develops abstract fields through patient, repeated mark-making. Her works reward slow viewing as individual lines gather into larger movements, rhythms and emotional structures.
4. Waseem Abbas
Waseem Abbas uses acrylic painting to explore social tension, vulnerability and transformation. Recognisable forms often emerge from energetic surfaces, creating images that are direct without becoming illustrative.
5. Aqeel Javaid Teetu
Aqeel Javaid Teetu’s figurative works balance character, gesture and theatrical restraint. His paintings often centre on psychologically charged figures whose expressions remain open to interpretation.
6. Beenish Ahmed Saraz
Beenish Ahmed Saraz turns domestic objects and familiar rituals into compact watercolour paintings. Her still lifes are precise, warm and quietly humorous, allowing everyday arrangements to carry narrative weight.
7. Adnan Ali Umrani
Adnan Ali Umrani works primarily in charcoal, moving between remembered landscapes, village life and urban transit. His drawings range from intimate sheets to expansive compositions built through sustained observation.
8. Sabina Saleem
Sabina Saleem’s oil paintings focus on human presence and unguarded moments. Her restrained compositions use gesture, posture and spatial distance to create a sense of intimacy.
9. Mudasir Hussain Chandio
Mudasir Hussain Chandio works in sculpture, using material and structure to examine construction, fragmentation and tension within the frame.
10. Khuzaima Ayaz
Khuzaima Ayaz brings script, abstraction and layered thought into acrylic painting. Calligraphic forms move between legibility and dissolution, becoming both language and image.
Explore their work
Discover these artists and other contemporary practices through the All Artworks collection and the Arfiras artist directory.