47x34in
2025
This piece fell out of me. Slowly, then all at once. It started with a wall that was too white, too big, in need of some warmth. It’s title in Urdu means The Orbiters. I’ve been working with shapes like this for a year and a half. They all share similar features - one bulbous element and long, spiky extensions.
A2
2025
It began with an illustration, pen and colored pencil on paper. Which led me to digital media explorations. I realised the textures I could add to my shape enhanced the color interplay I was experimenting with by hand . When adding shadows under the shape I wanted them to feel like bruises on the sickly green background. To intensify that effect, adding a blur to the color fields in the background added an almost nostalgic, older feeling to the poster. The poem paired with this visual is quite on the nose and speaks for itself. I usually avoid writing things with such blunt sentiments, but I think the increasingly polarised times we’re finding ourselves in calls upon artists to speak truth as a bare minimum.
A2
2025
Using a portrait from an older painting and the shape which created the basis of Embrace, I made this digital collage of a burnt out figure, hair standing on end, with burnt terracotta skin. Their features are made up of a repeated, separate portrait, trapped in a small cycle. There were a few iterations of this portrait, but I settled on this one for its distinct cooked sausage look.
A3
2022
Beginning from the soup of the subconscious with the primal self, a small seed of aspiration travels upwards. This piece contains various observers of the mind, watching over encountered ripples. From a twisted joker to a wide-eyed, craned neck onlooker hugging the walls on the left, each actor has its role. The divine feminine also makes an appearance, placed at the top left. Her eyes are cast towards horizons of the mind beyond our current knowledge, and her banner asks us to summon resolve. I sat with this piece as it appeared to me in fragments. Each hand placed here is an aspiration for better and higher attempts at self-actualisation. The eyes placed atop these swirling masses are folds and layers of thought. One eye weeps as it remains fixed on our attempts. Another wanders, chasing knowing of the unknowable - like where flying fish go.
Various sizes
2018, 2022
I made these pieces in New York & Berlin and have bubble wrapped and newspaper-packed them around from room to room since. Each of them is far from perfect, but life didn’t end when my vision didn’t translate 1:1. Instead they all hold their own in their new forms. Yet, they have some of the most promising glaze experiments I was lucky to conduct, and they’re all unique in shape. They all sit on my work desk wherever home is, and they remind me to appreciate the time I invest in my work, regardless of the outcome.
A5, A4
2024-2025
My approach to this series was intuitive and automatic. And its something that I’m currently playing with a lot in my practice. Low- tech, high yield methods led me to multiple worlds of characters. Allowing acrylic to speak with no space to breathe was key. I tried to respect the existing rich textures and color fields each print presented with.
Time away from the initial paintscapes was necessary to rest the eye in between steps. When I came back to each piece, everyone sitting in the paint shows themselves.
selected images
A3
2024/5
12/29 Photos mapping a drive from Islamabad to Khanpur. a night on the GT road, relayed predominantly through light leaks and streaks. The GT road here is considered as a bloodline, or a major artery. Its unfurled trunk carries uncountable people, goods, and animals on days that blur into nights. Its borders pockmarked with places to rest and refuel. These images are a small offering to this bloodline.
A2
2025
Described as a mcdonald’s fever dream, I made this poster on the day of the BBB’s debate commencement in the Senate of the United States. It’s made after this photo I took in an In-Drive in Lahore. The picture just goes unbelievably hard, I saw this belt buckle on a point3edly strange day after losing a close family friend, and it just shocked me back. That regardless of what happens, hold on.
A5
2024
Tattoo design I made after a chance, first encounter with a friend of a friend. He asked me if I would design a tattoo for him after going through an album on my phone called ‘Art’ which I have since misplaced. He asked me to draw whatever came to mind when I listened to the song: Own Place by emil . I made this design in a couple of short-burst sittings, completely freehand. People should take notes from him because honestly this was probably one of the best comission experiences I’ve ever had - so thank you.
A3
2022
Tasked with choosing an event related to the statement “The Right to Leave is A Racist Privilege”. I chose the heartbreaking scene that played out in Kabul after the city fell to Taliban rule in August of 2021. I experimented with a lot of different handwritten text for this, moving between analog and digital versions before I landed on the script for this poster. The Dari text used for this piece was translated by a family friend. As a Pakistani this image and the subsequent deportations conducted by Pakistan and Iran of Afghanis, alongside the gender apartheid international powers are allowing to unfold there haunts me.
A4
2021
A woman with no hands is drawn from the torso up, floating over water. Tendrils of wheat and an undulating form beginning with a hand and ending with fangs between where her legs should be are drawn in orange. This piece is entitled Punj - meaning five in Punjabi, my mother tongue. Punjab is the land of five rivers, and was arbitrarily divided during partition in 1947. This piece was made to consider the long lasting impact of partition on the region. There was a moment when I was innvested in the haptic as a form of knowing - that also features here
A3
2025
After getting back into screenprinting I worked my way up to more complex designs such as this mandala. At the time, I was thinking a lot about how negative emotions can present themselves in cyclical patterns, and so attempted to lock some of this energy into this print. As I was working my way outward, something shifted. I started with Oh No in the middle, to Not Again to No No No No & No No No No to Yes to kicking, screaming next to a sun whose rays are new roads, new paths into the future.
A3
2019
This medium opened doors in my thinking and approaches to color as a building block. In this example, ten screenprinting layers/inks are used. However, for the central circular motif, I hand pressed neocolor through my printing screen in order to achieve the effect shown. Throughout this edition of prints I paused at this final layer to build out this swirling circle, tweaking my technique as I went. The result is an edition with a single, completely unique element, bringing my viewers into this image of my parents with me.
Cotton t-shirt size S
A4
2022
This series is obviously silly, it marked a time in my practice after I had put so much pressure on myself that I couldn’t look ahead unless I was constantly creating bigger and better things. This series came from a sketchbook where I didn’t put any pressure on myself. Not to draw well, not to complete, not to draw big. Checking out of my own expetations for a year or so helped breathe life into my practice. Reminded me that silliness and play are fundamental to the work I want to create, and I don’t have to fold that idea in on itself and put it in my back pocket in order to get by.
A natural next progression from the screenprint on paper was to make clothes. Which actually worked out and sold well at Berlin art markets. It’s something I’m looking forward to doing more of as I figure out how to do it ethically in a world of industrial waste.
2018
This sculpture was created by combining three objects. A plastic tiger, a tennis ball, and one of my brother’s tshirts. The concept of a tiger with the ability to confer with itself emerged while hand-building wax and plaster models for the piece. Getting to work with glass was absolutely mind-bending, and with more access, I’d love to go back to it and explore wax building and the limits of coldworking further.
A4
2022
During my time running the screenprinting studio at my university, I had the chance to revive my love for the medium. The sketch leading to this print was created a couple of years prior, and features this swirled, segmented motif smoke-like motif that shows up a lot in my work. Transferring it from pencil to print allowed for a completely new viewing experience. This print was amongst the first I made and sold at art markets in Berlin to raise money for Pakistan.
2018
An unexpected interpretation of an object familiar in the collective imagination. A clown collar adds punctuation to a clown’s movements. Here the whimsy of the object remains but new questions of texture, function, and weight emerge when viewers are reintroduced to an object through an unexpected medium. Creating objects desirous of touch is a worthwhile endeavour.
2019
In spite of the lack of high quality documentation, it is important for me to include this piece here. This was probably my faovrite thing I made while at NYU. I was in a printmaking class with Noel Anderson who pushed us to appreciate the flexibility of screenprinting. This piece felt like I was finally tapping into the kind of work I’d beenn trying to get to for a long time. Straddling the space between prints on paper and installations with more dimension. I remember scrounging around the biulding for these acrylic plastic scraps and exposing some of them directly onto my screens. I put loads of references into this piece, like the circuit board in the bottom right, which was originally one of the primary functions of screenprinting - printing the circuitry on electronics.
A3
2019
The head of a Shaheen falcon and Markhor - two of Pakistan’s national animals, sit atop the shoulders of naked femme bodies. Two of a series of four simple illustrations that had to be censored in order to be exhibited at the Pakistan National Council of Arts.
2018
A reinterpretation of the Maori protector and predator of men - the Taniwha. Made with unrefined and unfired clay, for an exhibtion entitled Distortion. The Taniwha was one of 2 guardians on the exhibiton floor. The other was Medusa. In placing protective muthical beings from opposite sides of the world, I called upon guardians of women wronged to bear witness to the exhibition. They were released from their duties as the show stood after its opening, drying, and crumbling, eventually to return to the earth.
78.7in x 59in
2018
I developed a technique to re-expose expired Polaroid film. After a series of experiments I selected the most successful pieces and exhibited them on a pane of glass for easy inspection. I became deeply invested in the relationship between the chemicals contained within film and sunlight. Each piece of film’s color journey speaks to the transformative powers of light, heat, and touch, and is a process that held my deep focus and attention.
selected prints
2.7in x 9in
2019
10/20 prints from an edition I made with the assistance of my mother that changed my approach to printmaking. Using the same low-tech method we used for Sup Soup - I illustrated each print from this series largely automatically. All prints recieved the same treatment, first, a paint treatment of acrylic. Then some prescribed time away from the edition. Finally, a reinterpretation of each paintscape to discern which characters and little stories are contained therein.
2m20x50cm
2019
It started as a found canvas that I reprimed. It would glare at me every morning for months, empty and hungry. The idea to paint a nude protrait started as a desire to get back to oil painting. From there the process really took over, and in my small, poorly ventilated room at the time, I spent days waking up to this figure emerging. I chose to cover their genitilia with a pine needle instead of a fig leaf, for a cultural swap between Europe and Pakistan. The snake came last but I had it in mind from the start. I wanted to include a rebirthing symbol to signify this canvas’s new life.
Pieces of mine I come back to from time to time.
Everything feeds into itself.
rhmtroop@gmail.com
Instagram: @rehmat.z
I'm currently open to consultations, commissions, and collaborations.
2020-2023
New York University - NYU
Studio Art BFA
m. Creative Writing
2018-2020
PROJECT LEAD AT BIZAAR
CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT TSA
ART DIRECTOR AT 28ZOLL
WORKSHOP MANAGER AT BI
COPYWRITER & DESIGNER AT AVAULTE
WORKSHOP MONITOR AT NYU BARNEY
PEER MENTOR AT NYU BARNEY
INTERN AT MOMA PS1
TCF YOUTH AMBASSADOR
[2024]
Self-initiated 3 day South Asian community event series grant-funded by the Berlin Cultural Senate
[2024]
Designed and implemented a total overhaul of the existing brand identity of Taxila Stone
[2022]
Branding, copywriting, and campaign work focused internship working with 7+ active clients
Workflow management and internal communication development
[2022]
Screenprinting facility
Managing & assisting students within the workshop
[2020-2021]
Copywriting for website
Creation of digital promotional materials: Instagram, Web, Facebook
Content Strategy
Email Marketing
[2019-2020]
Printmaking Facility
Digital Lab
Sculpture Facility (Wood, Metal, Plaster, Mixed Media)
[2019-2020]
Focused on internal department communication between administrators and students
Welcoming incoming students and providing guidance through early semesters
[2019]
Social Media Management
Retail/ Bookstore Management Experience - Artbook
Event Photography
[2015-2016]
Public speaker at TCF fundraising events
2x3m mural designed, executed, and donated to TCF Pakistan
Public Speaking
Visual Communication
Adobe Suite
Figma
Google Suite
Solo Exhibition
Pakistan National Council of Arts
2019
Permanence in a Time of Impermanence
Group Exhibition
New York University
2019
Distortion
Solo Exhibition
International School of Geneva
2018
Moakley Courthouse
Group Exhibition with Katherine Kominis
2014
2023-2024
Creative Director on winning team of BI’s Interdisciplinary project to redesign Hertha FC’s fan store at Olympiastadion in Berln
2023
Studio Art Practice Award - NYU
2020
Overall winner of Poetry Recitation Competition “Poetry Alive” Le Rosey
2017
2024
Through the Queer Eye Issue 1 by Israa Abouelkhair
2023
20 in 2020 Aljazeera Podcast
2020
Artist interview on PTV with Omar Khalid Butt
2019
Bizaar after film
All 3 Bizaar event series posters
L to R: Bizaar temporary tattoo, t-shirt, and tattoo spread at Bizaar Day 2: The Body
Bizaar Instagram feed
L to R: Selected photos from Bizaar Day 3: The Voice, Bizaar sticker design
became staple decorations at all the Bizaar events
2024
3 events spanning 3 themes relating to the Queer migrant body: Touch, The Body, The Voice.
I was project lead, and with a close-knit team of 3 on our core team, we welcomed 500+ guests to Bizaar.
The project’s visual and research basis was my thesis Visual Languages of Belonging amongst the Queer South Asian Diaspora of Berlin. For the project portion of the thesis, I put together a visual identity for an evennt concept aimed at fostering community amongst the chosen demographic.
Little did I know, Bizaar would move from theory to practice in the span of a single year. I submitted my application in December 2023, and on December 7th 2024, we held our final, most intimate event at _Subkontinent.
2022-present
2024
2019-2024
Aight You Playin’ Games Now - EP by Unitus
Those Who Whisper - Podcast Cover for Sihame
Last Night‘s Dream - Single by Unitus
Bubblegum Utopia Logo Animation for Socials
Website Translation/Copywriting for agency website
2022
HNDS - Berlin-based .925 sterling silver jewelry brand I had the pleasure to pitch to
Translation - German to English