Humaira Abid
The Shape of Life
July 3, 2025 - August 23, 2025
Greg Kucera Gallery is excited to announce our third exhibition with Pakistan-born artist, Humaira Abid. The show’s title, The Shape of Life, refers to an individual’s unique path and purpose in life. The artist is also painfully aware that how our life takes shape depends not just on our choices, but also on the political, social, and religious turmoil that surrounds us.
Employing intricately detailed wood carving and miniature painting, the works in this exhibition address the protests of women, children living and dying in times of war, and the plight of refugees and immigrants.
“We make meaning of our lives in the way we tell our stories. This show/series is focused on the current situation in the world and how it’s shaping our lives.” –Humaira Abid
Taking center stage in the exhibition is an installation including 24 carved wood sculptures called THE SHAPE OF WAR atop child sized desks. The series explores the aftermath of conflict, particularly focusing on the loss of young lives in war-torn countries, and the earth-shattering effect on the mournful families of these children. In each sculpture, the artist depicts a rehal, an X-shaped book-rest used to hold religious scriptures. Displayed on the folding lectern are prayer beads, symbolizing prayers for the loss or death of a loved one, and a flower, symbolizing the youth and innocence of children. Each piece is accompanied by the transcribed story of a child who lived and died in a time of war. The stories and pictures are located in the desk drawers.
The exhibition also includes a series titled WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM (I, II, and III,) pairs of carved wood scissors that become the frame for paintings of women cutting or shaving their hair and human hair embroidered into images of flowers. The work is in direct response to the 2022 arrest and beating death of Mahsa Amini in Iran. After her horrific murder, women began cutting their hair publicly to protest the morality laws and brutality used in the oppression of women.
“I deeply believe that a work of art should have a purpose. As an artist, I have a responsibility to educate the society in which I live, and to be a voice. This has been the main purpose of my work and will always be.” – Humaira Abid
Biography
Abid was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan where she received her BFA in sculpture and miniature painting from the National College of Arts, Lahore in 2000. She had a solo museum exhibition, Searching For Home, traveling to Bellevue Arts Museum, the Center for Wood in Philadelphia, PA, Contemporary Craft in Pittsburg, PA, Museum of Art and Culture, in Spokane, WA and USC Pacific Asia Museum in Los Angeles from 2017 to 2024. Her residency at Facebook resulted in the 2019 site specific installation of Folded Stories. Abid was awarded the Art Innovator Award by Artist Trust in 2019. She participated in the exhibition, Migration, at the Museo di Palazzo della Penna in Perugia, Italy in 2022. She lives and works in Bellevue, WA.