Humaira Abid: Searching for Home Gives Powerful Voice to Worldwide Refugee Crisis
Borders and Boundaries, 2017 (Detail), Barbed wire: Mahogany, carved; Fenceposts: Cedar; Underwear: Pine, carved; red wood stain, 13” x 4” x 4 ½”. Photo: Matthew Tallorin
Searching for Home—a solo exhibition of Seattle-based, Pakistan-born artist Humaira Abid—opens at Contemporary Craft on Friday, April 9 and runs through Saturday, August 21, 2021. This powerful exhibition presents a human-scaled look at the worldwide refugee crisis, focusing on women and girls, who make up a disproportionate percentage of the millions of people who have fled their home countries as a result of political conflict and strife, ethnic cleansing and persecution, domestic abuse, climate change and crimes against humanity.
The artworks in the Searching for Home exhibition were created following months of research and interviews by the artist with refugee women who have been resettled in both the Pacific Northwest and Pakistan from nations including Somalia, Syria and Afghanistan.
“Contemporary Craft is committed to presenting exhibitions that respond to contemporary life, with a special focus on issues of social justice. We believe art builds community and promotes healing through socially engaged art experiences such as Humaira Abid’s Searching for Home exhibition. Her artworks are timely, relevant, and thought-provoking. We are grateful to add her potent voice to important and compelling conversations within the greater Pittsburgh community,” said Janet McCall, Contemporary Craft executive director.
Abid is well known for her unique visual language, which blends the discipline of traditional Mughal miniature painting and sculpture in wood. Her career-long decision to specialize in wood sculpture—a male-dominated field—reflects her commitment to challenging stereotypes. The beauty and mastery of Abid’s life-size carvings of everyday objects that are ripe with subtext and share stories of the violence, cruelty, upheaval, and instability in society, especially that to which women are subject.
Searching for Home, 2016-17 (Detail) Pine, carved; red wood stain, 19” x 72” x 36”. Photo: Emilie Smith
The artworks in Searching for Home demonstrate the artist’s ability to tread a narrow line between evocative (and often provocative) content and mastery in a material discipline. An interactive piece invites the visiting public to participate in storytelling and the sharing of personal narratives. A publication complimenting the exhibition will be available for purchase. Searching for Home contains sensitive material; interpretive resources will be available.
Searching for Home is at Contemporary Craft from Friday, April 9 through Saturday, August 21, 2021. Opening receptions by timed ticketing are scheduled with the artist, Humaira Abid, on Friday, April 9 from 5:30 pm to 8:0 pm and Saturday, April 10 from 11 am to 4 pm. Visitors will be able to experience the exhibition through the artist’s voice as she shares the research and interviews she conducted with refugee women that inspired her artworks. Limited appointments are available on opening weekend; reserve early at www.contemporarycraft.org.
Humaira Abid: Searching for Home was curated by Jennifer-Navva Milliken and organized by the Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, in partnership with the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, Washington. 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.
For more information or high-res photos of works in Searching for Home, please contact info@contemporarycraft.org
Due to COVID-19, Contemporary Craft is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 am to 4pm until further notice. Admission is free but timed tickets from EventBrite are required. Contemporary Craft adheres to COVID restrictions including social distancing, masks required and limited number of visitors.
