A&D Alumni wins the Western Sydney Arts Fellowship

UNSW Art & Design graduate and multi-disciplinary artist, Khadim Ali, has been awarded the New South Wales Government’s 2016 Western Sydney Arts Fellowship worth $50,000.

Commending the artist, Executive Director of Arts NSW, Michael Brealey, said Mr Ali's work draws on both his Hazara Heritage and the experiences of the diverse communities of Western Sydney metropolitan area.

‘Khadim Ali combines the traditions of miniature painting with contemporary themes relating to his culture and people and now his experiences, like many in Western Sydney, of migration, displacement and cultural identity,” Mr Brealey said.

After arriving in Australia in 2009, Mr Ali undertook a Master of Fine Arts at UNSW Art & Design and in 2015 held his first solo Australian exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where he is now on the Board of Trustees. Ali is also currently a studio artist at Blacktown Arts Centre.

The Western Sydney Arts Fellowship, now in its second year, will support Ali to develop a series of ambitious new works to be exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; two solo exhibitions in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Lahore, Pakistan; another exhibition in Brisbane; and a group show at Blacktown Arts Centre showcasing the work of five Afghan Australian artists working internationally.

Mr Ali's work has drawn extensive critical attention and acclaim. Recently he was also one of six artists shortlisted for inaugural 2016 NSW Visual Artist Fellowship. He was also honoured recently as a recipient of one of eight Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships worth $160,000.