As I enter the gallery, I am confronted by two formidable walls of collaged landscapes that reconfigure Hunza’s mountains, valleys and glaciers. The colours have been digitally altered, shifting the terrain into heightened, almost otherworldly registers, while flecks of gold leaf catch the light, lending the works a fragile, luminous intensity.

Pakistan is home to more than 13,000 glaciers, the largest number outside the polar regions (this revised glacier inventory was released in late 2024). However, many of them are rapidly melting, an unspoken fact that hangs heavily in the air.

These large-scale collages set the tone for ‘Alchemy of Becoming’, Sarah Ahmad’s compelling solo exhibition at Koel Gallery, curated by Professor Naazish Ata-Ullah. The exhibition brings together a body of work reflecting Ahmad’s engagement with transformation of landscapes, materials, memory and the self against a backdrop of ecological fragility and displacement.

Born in Lahore and now based in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the US, Ahmad is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses drawing, collage, installation and site-responsive work. Since completing her MFA from the Memphis College of Art, Tennessee, in 2015, Ahmad’s work has been included in 60 group exhibitions, 18 solo........

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