An installation by Huma Bhabha, titled We Come in Peace, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, dated 2017.

 (b. 1962) has become known for layered and nuanced work that centers on reinvention of the figure and its expressive possibilities. Her formally inventive practice encompasses sculpture, drawings, and photography.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Bhabha moved to the United States in 1981 to attend the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, from which she received her BFA in 1985. She later studied at the School of the Arts at Columbia University, New York, from which she received her MFA in 1989. The artist presently lives and works in Poughkeepsie, New York.

, a large-scale installation commissioned by Public Art Fund, will be unveiled at Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York. In 2023, M Leuven, Belgium, presented the solo exhibition 

. A solo presentation of Bhabha’s work curated by Nicholas Baume was on view at Fundación Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido, Mexico, from 2022 to 2023. In 2020, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England, presented 

. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, organized 

, on view in 2019, and published an accompanying catalogue. An installation of the artist’s work, 

, was commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2018 for the museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden.

Previous solo exhibitions of the artist’s work have taken place at prominent institutions such as The Contemporary Austin, Texas (2018); MoMA PS1, New York (2012); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2012); Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2011); and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2008), among others.

Bhabha’s work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including 

, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon (2022); 

 (curated by Francesco Bonami), Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato, Italy (2021); 

, 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020); 2019 Yorkshire Sculpture International, Wakefield, England; 

, 56th Venice Biennale (2015); and the 2010 Whitney Biennial.

Bhabha has been the recipient of notable awards, such as the Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship, Berlin Prize, awarded by The American Academy in Berlin (2013); and the Emerging Artist Award, awarded by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2008). In 2022, Bhabha was elected as a National Academician by the The National Academy of Design, New York. In 2023, the artist was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York.

In February 2024, two concurrent exhibitions of Bhabha’s work were presented at David Zwirner’s 537 West 20th Street and 34 East 69th Street locations in New York. This marks the gallery’s first presentation of her work since the announcement of her representation in 2022.

Work by the artist is held in significant collections worldwide, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Long Museum, Shanghai; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, Durham; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas; New York Public Library; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; Roberts Institute of Art, London; Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates; Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Tate, United Kingdom; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; and the Zhuzhong Art Museum, Beijing, among others.

Past Exhibitions

Explore solo and group exhibitions from Huma Bhabha at David Zwirner.

Huma Bhabha - Exhibitions

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An artwork by Huma Bhabha called ﻿Even Stones Have Eyes, dated 2023

537 West 20th Street 

Welcome…to the one who came

Huma Bhabha

Split

A detail from a work on paper by Huma Bhabha, called Untitled, dated 2023.

A detail image of a work on paper by Huma Bhabha

34 East 69th Street

Survey

Since the 1990s, Huma Bhabha (b. 1962) has become known for layered and nuanced work that centers on reinvention of the figure and its expressive possibilities. Her formally inventive practice encompasses sculpture, drawings, and photography.

Comeback

The Hood Maker

The Ancient and Arcane

Number One

Everything is True

Shadow Gang

Untitled

Huma Bhabha: Against Time

Huma Bhabha: They Live

Chanhu-Daro

Receiver

Four Nights of a Dreamer

We Come in Peace

Benaam

Alfonso

Ghost of Humankindness

Huma Bhabha: Unnatural Histories

Bleekmen

God of Some Things

Centaur

The Orientalist

Bumps in the Road

Since the 1990s, Huma Bhabha (b. 1962) has become known for layered and nuanced work that centers on reinvention of the figure and its expressive possibilities. Her formally inventive practice encompasses sculpture, drawings, and photography. 

Huma Bhabha - Works

Huma Bhabha: Welcome…to the one who came

1-Up

Grid

 (2023), Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2024. Photo by Marco Cappelletti

Huma Bhabha: A Fly Appeared, and Disappeared

, MO.CO., Montpellier, 2023. Photo by Marc Domage

Installation view of the exhibition, titled Huma Bhabha: A Fly Appeared, and Disappeared, at MO.CO. in Montpellier, dated 2023.

Installation view of the exhibition, Huma Bhabha: Against Time, at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, dated 2020.

Installation view of the exhibition, Huma Bhabha, Against Time at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, dated 2020.

Against Time Install 3

Installation view of the exhibition, Huma Bhabha, Against Time, at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, dated 2020.

Against Time Install 2

, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2019

Installation view of the exhibition, Huma Bhabha: They Live, at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston in Boston, dated 2019.

Installation view, The Roof Garden Commission: Huma Bhabha, 

, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2018. Photo by Hyla Skopitz. Image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Installation view of Huma Bhabha: We Come in Peace at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, dated 2018.

, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York, 2013

Installation view of the exhibition, Huma Bhabha: Unnatural Histories, at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, NY, dated 2013. 

Huma Bhabha - Artworks & Biography

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