Zara Asgher

Zara Asgher is a visual artist and educator from Lahore, Pakistan, currently living and practicing in Finland.
Through the act of drawing and painting she examines social structures that shape embodied experiences
of gender and sexuality. This interest extends to how these power dynamics shift when one moves from
a familiar cultural context to a different one.
Repetition plays a central role in this process—through repetition, norms take hold, structuring our
movements, desires, and ways of being. By tracing moments where the body slips—where it disconnects
from itself, where friction exposes the instability of what is expected— Asgher explores how new modes
of sensing and becoming emerge.
Asgher holds a BFA from National College of Arts, Lahore. She was awarded a full scholarship to pursue
an MA in Nordic Visual Studies and Art Education at Aalto University, Finland.

CV

Zara Asgher (she/her) b.1987

Helsinki

zara.asgher@outlook.com 

Education 

2022 Masters in Nordic Visual Studies & Art Education Aalto University, FI 

2011 Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, National College of Arts, PK 

Upcoming exhibitions

2026 Habit Bodies, Hasanen and Asgher duo exhibition, Caisa Cultural Centre, Helsinki, FI

2026 Group show, Whitewall Gallery, Lahore, PK

Selected Exhibitions 

2025 Soft Fascination- Group Exhibition parallel to Rauma Triennale, Muijala Art Space, Reila, FI 

2025 Restless, Group Exhibition, Myymala2, Helsinki, FI

2024 Mātam-e Shehr-e Jānaṇ- LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences), Lahore, PK

2024 JÄLKI, Galleria Toinen Silmä, Helsinki, FI 

2024 “in our lives we can notice a breath, then breathing…”, Zara Asgher & Nisha Hasan, Kaleido Kontemporary, Lahore, PK 

2023 Of flesh and edges- Zara Asgher & Laura Hasanen, Red Door Gallery, Copenhagen, DK 

2023 a place that lingers and yet dissolves- group show at Galleria Loisti, Helsinki, FI 

2022 The Body Displaced, Full Circle Gallery, Karachi, PK 

2022 Unfamiliar Impressions- Zara Asgher & Laura Hasanen, Asbestos Gallery, Helsinki, FI

2022 Art for All Festival & Residency, Kaisaniemi Botanical Gardens, Helsinki, Finland 

2021 Spinning and Unspinning: The Art of the Storyteller, O Art Space, Lahore, PK 

2019 Self Portrait in the Age of the Selfie, COMO Museum of Art, Lahore, PK 

2019 Monsoon- a box print portfolio, Zahoor ul Akhlaq Gallery, National College of Arts, Lahore,   PK 

2018 River in an Ocean, Group show- parallel event to Lahore Biennale, Lahore, PK 

2017 Of Other Spaces, Lahore, PK 

2017 Crossing Borders- printmaking group exhibition, Siddartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu, NP

Residencies & Projects  

2024 Taidetila Muijala, artist residency, Reila, FI 

2022 Art for All Festival– a week-long residency and collaboration with Laura Hasanen,  Kaisaniemi, Botanical Gardens, Helsinki, FI 

2022 Cultural Producer- Do It Ourselves (D.I.O), student organised project funded by University Wide Studies   (UWAS), Aalto University, Espoo, FI

A student organized collective that established a space within the university for arts-based   activities and to address issues related to wellbeing within the university. 

2021-22 Art Educator- Internship at the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, FI

The internship focused on engaging non-finnish speaking audiences and planning and conducting workshops for adults (+18).

2021-22 Art Educator- Espoo Museum of Modern Art (EMMA), Espoo, FI

Part of a team that planned and carried out workshops based on museum exhibitions for Art Break weeks. 

2021 Cultural Producer, Non-Exhibition, A Self Organized Collective Effort to be Together, V1 Gallery, Aalto University, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Espoo, FI 

Student initiated takeover of a campus gallery in order to address topics of access within the university and provide space for participatory practices.

2021 Anarkal is Alive– a project based on the historical Anarkali bazaar in Lahore, Pakistan, curated by Sehr Jalil.

Supported by the World Monument Funds, New York. The project was phase 2 of the heritage of Anarkali project, designed and conducted by Rogers   Kolachi Khan and associates.  

2017 Return to Basics, a week-long Printmaking workshop which culminated in an exhibition at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, supported by VASL artist association, Karachi, Pk 

Association memberships 

Global Art Point Association, Helsinki, FI

Catalysti- Transcultural artist’s association, Helsinki, FI