Sheherezade Alam (19 June 1948 – 19 May 2022) was a Pakistani-Canadian ceramist.
Early life and education
Alam was born in 1948 in Lahore, Pakistan to Mahmoud Alam, a Pakistani former tennis player and his wife, Surayya, in Lahore. She had two brothers, Asad and Shaban. Brought up in Lahore, she completed her FA from its Kinnaird College. She went on to obtain her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Design with a distinction in ceramics from Lahore's National College of Arts (NCA), where she studied under the country's first ceramist, Salahuddin Mian. She later became an artist-in-residence at Yale University. She taught at the NCA, as well as at Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey).
Personal life
In 1971, she married Zahoor ul Akhlaq (1941–1999), a painter, and the couple had two daughters, Jahanara (1974–1999) and Nurjahan (b. 1979). Zahoor and Jahanara were murdered in their home in Lahore in 1999 by a visiting acquaintance, Shahzad Butt, a roti merchant of the city. The killer could give no reason for having turned his gun on them.
Career
Shows
Group
- 1980: Sultan Art Gallery, Kuwait
- 1983: Group Show, British Council, Islamabad
- 1983: Group Show, Rohtas Gallery, Islamabad
- 1988: Joint exhibition, Yale University, New Haven, USA
- 1995 to 1999: Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (yearly)
- 2009: Group Show, Vogue Art Gallery, Islamabad.
Solo
- 1990: Chawkandi Arts, Karachi
- 1993: Ish Gallery, Ankara, Turkey
- 1994: Bismillah, Arcadia Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 1996: Clay Continuum, Gardiner Art Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 2004: Offering Bowls, Arcadia Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 2005: Laali, Ceramic Installation, Private Residence, Lahore
- 2006: Laali, The garden of Imran Mir, Karachi
References
- "Pakistani-Canadian ceramicist channelled joy and grief into her work". The Globe and Mail. 8 June 2022.
- Shuaib, Haroon. "Sheherezade Alam: A Soulful Life of a Kooza-Gar (Vessel-maker)".
- Acclaimed ceramist Sheherezade Alam passes away, tribune.com.pk. Accessed 28 July 2022.
- ^ "Bio". Sheherezade Alam. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- Circumstances of murders of Zahoor ul Akhlaq and his daughter, Jahanara, dawn.com. Accessed 28 July 2022.
- Group exhibition opens at Vogue Art Gallery Daily Times 21 November 2009. 26 October 2010.
- 1948 births
- 2022 deaths
- 20th-century Canadian artists
- Canadian ceramists
- Canadian potters
- Pakistani emigrants to Canada
- Pakistani ceramists
- Pakistani potters
- Kinnaird College for Women University alumni
- National College of Arts alumni
- Artists from Lahore
- Women potters
- Pakistani women ceramists
- 20th-century ceramists
- 20th-century Pakistani artists
- 21st-century ceramists
- 21st-century Pakistani artists
- Canadian women ceramists