Visual Artist
Born in Anantnag Kashmir, India
Lives and works in Hangzhou, China
Azim is a narrative painter. His vivid paintings depict life from his birthplace, Kashmir. Azim paints and draws inspiration from majestic mountains, water bodies, natural vistas, people, streets, folk culture and traditions, home-grown handicraft, and historical sites. Azim grew up in a mountainous area of Anantnag in Kashmir that is full of open meadows and mesmerizing landscapes. His works often embodies the mellowness of nature juxtaposed with human suffering. His experiences of growing up in Kashmir had a profound impact on his work as an artist to the extent of shaping his treatment of subject and theme.
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Azim holds a Bachelor's in Fine Arts from Kashmir University, a Master’s from Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi and a second Master’s in Fine Arts in Oil Painting from China Academy of Art (Hangzhou). Azim has exhibited his work in South Korea, India, China, Pakistan, Portugal and the United States.
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Azim currently lives and works in Hangzhou China while also maintaining an artist studio between Hangzhou and Kashmir. Much of his painting also deals with questions of remembrance, preservation of cultural and collective memory and reflections on erasure. Azim is inspired by notions of nativity and indigeneity that are particular to his birthplace, and his work quite significantly revolves around cultural preservation and the presentation of multiple cultural and natural histories that connect his place of origin with the rest of the world. He uses painting as a medium to draw such connections and to create proximity and familiarity in a relatively divided world.
Education
2014-2017
2010-2013
2005-2010
China Academy of Art, Hangzhou Zhejiang, China
Department of Oil painting, Master in Oil Painting
Jamia Millia Islamia University, Okhla New Delhi India
Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of painting: Master in Painting.
University of Kashmir, Srinagar Kashmir India
Institute of Music and Fine Arts, Department of painting:Bachelor of Painting