The Charcoal Universe

After studying printmaking from the National College of Arts Lahore, Sophiya Khwaja attended the Rhode Island School of Design on a Fulbright scholarship for her MFA. She taught printmaking at her alma mater, National College of Arts as an Assistant Professor for a number of years while simultaneously producing and exhibiting her own studio work.

Sophiya’s work can be found at the RISD Museum, UNESCO, Yale University Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, Duoro Biennial Printmaking collection and in numerous private collections both in the US and Pakistan. She is also the founding partner and CEO of a marketing agency with offices in both the UAE and Pakistan.

Sophiya’s work is an exploration of the modern-day molds for women and the expectations attached to them. It explores the spaces and places traditionally inhabited by women and the various ways, wiles, lies, compromises, attitudes and personalities that they adopt to navigate them. Through a persona that is part small-town girl and part diva, with a smidgen of M (James Bond), the work unpacks themes of domesticity, its politics, hierarchy, power struggles, desires and a mid-life crisis.