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, was unveiled at Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York. In 2023, M Leuven, Belgium, presented the solo exhibition 

. The show traveled to MO.CO., Montpellier, France, in November 2023 as 

Huma Bhabha: A fly appeared, and disappeared. 

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 

MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today

, National Museum of Qatar, Doha (2024); 

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture

, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC (2024); 

, 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.

Text by Shanay Jhaveri, Ed Halter and Sheena Wagstaff

A compact volume that illuminates the work of Huma Bhabha and chronicles her piece for the 2018 Met Roof Garden commission.

Often described as “post apocalyptic,” the work of Pakistani sculptor Huma Bhabha (b. 1962) responds to the violence and turmoil in the world around her through depictions of anthropomorphic figures that often appear to be dismembered, melted, or dissected. This compact volume, accompanying a site-specific installation at the Metropolitan Museum’s Roof Garden, features an interview with the artist that provides new insight into her diverse influences. Essays discuss the impact of cinema and science fiction on Bhabha’s sculpture, explore art historical connections, and illuminate the artist’s process and oeuvre over the past 20 years. Like the installation, this book—the sixth in a series devoted to the Met’s Roof Garden Commissions—connects Bhabha’s contemporary practice to both art history and global current events.

Huma Bhabha: We Come in Peace

Huma Bhabha: We Come in Peace | Books

David Zwirner is an art gallery with locations in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong. We present physical and online exhibitions, podcasts, books, and more.