In my recently published essay, “The Networked Gulgee,” The Gulgee Museum Handbook, edited by John McCarry, (Lightstone Publishers: 2025), I consider Pakistani modern artist Ismail Gulgee’s works under the framework of Actor-network theory.

“The essay investigates Ismail Gulgee’s art practice in his formative years from the perspective of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to understand networks between actors such as artist and patrons, and the role of mediating quasi objects such as gifts, nuances of written language, and art mediums like lapis lazuli in building Gulgee’s relational ties. In centering this essay on Gulgee (d. 2007), a purpose is to also demonstrate interdisciplinary methodology for an art historical inquiry. ANT can be valuable in helping us describe the growth of ‘processual knowledge’ cultivated by the artist and open avenues for future studies investigating the progressive stages of Gulgee’s fifty-year career.”

In my research, I have come to identify ‘processual knowledge’ as the combination of idiosyncratic artist methods, materialities, evolving pictorial conventions, studio environments, and out of studio processes undertaken by the artist. Processual knowledge entangles with networks or channels like movement of materials and equipment, market, resources, distribution, artisanship, craft, etc.

My research queries materiality, spatiality, and networks that affect artworks as they emerge before, during, and after the layered processes of artmaking within artists studios, workshops, economies, and histories. My paper on Shazia Zuberi’s ceramic studio processes was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Art and Design Education Pakistan.

“Past scholarship on ceramics in Pakistan has broadly focused on regionally disseminated craft-based practice or studio-based ceramists under a biographical or a feminist lens. A study of what triggers the studio artist’s imagination merging with her processes is missing in the literature and thus, creating a void that manifests as ignorance of an artist’s ingenuity and contemplative and physical endeavors. Based on ethnographic participant observation and in-depth interviews conducted, my paper identifies Zuberi’s studio as the mediating space between her out-of-doors experiences and indoor processes. This fusion results in ‘geographical ceramics,’ which are formal representations of the earth, while symbolically suggesting human history and erosion of ethics.”

In my catalog essay, “A Strange Multiverse of Many Beating Hearts,” for the performance art exhibition Jagah Hai: Is There a Space | There is a Space, curated by Amin Gulgee, Sara Pagganwala, and Adam Fahy-Majeed at Amin Gulgee Gallery (Karachi), I ruminate over our complex relationships with sprawling and chaotic cities. This is one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever written.

“I idealize that Karachi ought to be like a gorgeous painting which brings peace. Like the beautiful “Germination” by S. H. Raza, Karachi is textured, earthly, balanced, and universal. In truth, Karachi is muddled and messy like an abstract painting with paint dripping from all sides. The city demands incessantly, leaving some type of scarring every now and then. Here, push comes to shove to cope and meet expectations within space that is expanding like the big bang – tiring, unyielding, and unceasing.” 

I also love to teach. I developed and taught courses in Japanese art history and fashion design, South Asian manuscripts, and global modern and contemporary art for undergraduate institutions. Check out my most recent review published by Hyperallergic for Alicia Volk’s fantastic new book, In The Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan (University of Chicago Press).

I am a devoted lover of nature, athletics, languages, and books. Some of my favorite novels include the Ryhope Wood series by Robert Holdstock, Dan Simmon’s The Hyperion Cantos, works by Siri Hustvedt, Olga Tokarczuk, and Eleanor Catton. My review for R. F. Kuang’s fabulous novel Babel: A Necessity of Violence was published by Dawn News. I passionately read across genres including works by Gaston Bachelard, Niilofur Farrukh, Pamela H. Smith, Sonal Khullar, and Robert Macfarlane.

Check out my book recommendations on my Instagram @pressedpulpandink.

I have an MA in Art History and Criticism from The State University of New York at Stony Brook where I was a Fulbright Scholar. I received my BD in Industrial and Product Design from the University of Karachi and earned a gold medal. I was also a recipient of the Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation Scholarship to study Entrepreneurship and Economic Enterprise at The National University of Singapore.

Here’s how to pronounce my name: Na (as in nut) g (as in gray) een (as in eel)