Hamida Khatri

Born in 1985 in Karachi (Pakistan)
Lives and works in Baltimore (USA)

Hamida Khatri works in a variety of mediums — from figurative drawings, to photography, to sculptural puppets, to animation. As well as an artist, she is also a writer, curator, arts educator, community activist, and a creative arts therapist. She holds an MFA in Community Arts and a Certificate in Teaching from the Maryland Institute College of Art (U.S.), Certificate in Humanistic Counseling (U.K.), MBA in marketing (Pakistan), and a BFA in sculpture and photography (Pakistan). She is the Founder and Director of Creative Therapy Platform — A Voluntary Travel-Community Project focused on crafting healing spaces in underrepresented areas. Her recent success lies in the initiation of a social justice community-based venture, [i am] Project KALI – Celebration of Womanhood, in Baltimore, where she has created a safe space for women with a history of trauma and abuse via artistic collaborations and interventions. The project secured grants by The Pollination Project, France-Merrick Opportunity Fund, and Launch Artists in Baltimore Award. By establishing linking platforms, she has been able to curate numerous shows where community participants’ artworks have been displayed, including: Gallery Four, Motor House, Rousse Gallery, Meyerhoff Gallery, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Khatri has been an artist-in-residence for Elsewhere (Greensboro, U.S.), Khoj International Artists’ Association (India), Uronto Residential Artist Exchange Program (Bangladesh), and Soch Studio (India). She has been widely exhibited in Pakistan, U.S., and Bangladesh, including the Florence Biennale – X Edition in Italy.

Hamida Khatri writes of her submission for KB17: “Hamida Khatri’s current body of work pays homage to her mother who has always supported her dream of having an independent life. The Screenshot Montage is a documentation of her conversations with her mother — living in Karachi, Pakistan — over the phone while being in the U.S. Whereas Mom & Me, a ‘witnessing’ stop-motion animation, portrays the familiarization of the routine tasks she executes every day being in a foreign land away from her mother.”