Sehr Jalil

Sehr Jalil is a contemporary visual artist, researcher, writer, educator and thinker from Lahore/Pakistan.

Jalil’s research practice looks at histories that are deemed lost and/or nuances of memory. Viewed through an archival lens, her work seeks to uncover the truisms or pseudo-classifications of post-colonial or tunnel-versioned time and place. She is a PhD scholar at Goldsmiths, University of London/United Kingdom, Department of Visual Cultures, as well as a lecturer at the Department of Cultural Studies, National College of Arts, Lahore.

As a public art practitioner, she has been a member of the Lahore-based Awami Art Collective since its inception in 2015. Jalil has been teaching art in practice and theory since 2007 and has played a key role in the Cultural Studies Department at the National College of Arts, Lahore, since 2015. She has contributed to the development of the department and courses, teaching courses such as the History of Art and Architecture, the History of South Asian Design, Art since 1945, and MPhil courses in South Asian Material and Visual Culture. Jalil is a core member of the Awami Art Collective; a group of artists and activists who rely on public art to bring about a change in their environments. Her work has been exhibited at the Phillips Collection Museum. Jalil contributes her research and writing to national and international journals and publications. She presented her paper at the URBAN HERITAGE CONFERENCE Simulizi Mijini/Urban Narratives, TU Berlin/Germany in March 2017 and has contributed reviews, studio visits, essays, and profiles to Art Now Pakistan (the only online Pakistani magazine on contemporary art) since 2013. She was also a participant in the Boston Architectural College faculty exchange program on international heritage conservation in Boston and New Mexico/USA in 2018 and in the ART for Social Change artist exchange program in New York and Washington DC/USA, hosted by the Meridian International Center and the US embassy in 2013. She completed her BFA (Painting major DEC 2006) and (MA Hons Visual Arts 2014) at the National College of Arts, Lahore. Her MA/MPhil dissertation was entitled Understanding the Phenomenon of Paradise through Contemporary Visual Art.