
Sara Vaqar Pagganwala
Sara Vaqar Pagganwala received her BFA (Hons) from Central St. Martins, University of the Arts, London, and is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and academic. She has been a part of several group shows locally and internationally. Her work explores the construction and rearrangement of different materials and properties, asking questions about form and control. She also investigates notions of the body and identity as a repetitive constant, especially in her performative work.
Pagganwala was an assistant curator for the inaugural Karachi Biennale 2017 and curated Mix Tape (1), an exhibition of contemporary performance art from all over Pakistan at Canvas Gallery, Karachi. She has since been a part of curating numerous shows in Karachi, including Quantum City: Territory | Space | Place, which was the first International Public Art Festival at the iconic Karachi Port Trust (co-curated with Amin Gulgee and Zarmeene Shah); Lal Jadoo, an exhibition of performance art at Karachi House and a part of the second International Public Art Festival, which was aired live (co-curated by Amin Gulgee); The Trojan Donkey, a virtual international performance show happening simultaneously in over twenty-eight different cities around the world (co-curated by Amin Gulgee and Adam Fahy-Majeed); and If These Walls Could Talk, a drive-through new media show (co-curated by Amin Gulgee). Her recent project, Jagah Hai, was co-curated by Amin Gulgee and Adam Fahy-Majeed, and was Pakistan’s largest performance art show, featuring over fifty-two works from artists from all over the country.
Pagganwala currently lives and works in Karachi. She has worked as an assistant curator and special projects coordinator at Canvas Gallery and is part of the adjunct faculty in the Liberal Arts department at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, where she designed and introduced performance art as a course for the first time in Pakistan.