KBT

Almas Bana has primarily worked with not-for-profit organizations including 14 years with Agha Khan University with the last held position of Associate Dean, followed by stints in Kenya and Pakistan as CEO of school trusts managing their school networks. His strengths lie in developing strategic programs and managing their implementation. He enjoys working in multi cultural environments.
Almas believes that art in all its manifestations not only reflect society but can provide a vision for its positive development. It should be a harbinger of change in an open society. Involvement in the Karachi Biennale provides him with such an experimental opportunity. Almas has B.Sc and M.B.A. degrees from Pakistan and Certificate in International Management from Boston University, USA.

Niilofur Farrukh is a cultural interventionist based in Karachi. Her prolific five-decade career centres on decolonizing ways of viewing, reading, practicing, and writing about art and culture in Pakistan. In 2016, she co-founded Karachi Biennale Trust and as its CEO led four acclaimed editions of the Karachi Biennale through 2025. This city-wide international project created opportunities for public audiences to experience the transformative power of art with hundreds of works on themes that were relevant to their lives.
She is also the co-founder of ASNA that hosted four International Clay Triennials that created synergy between contemporary art and artisanal practices. Since the 1990s, Niilofur’s art criticism has been published in articles and columns in major newspapers like Dawn and Newsline in Pakistan and regional publications. As the founder editor of NuktaArt, Pakistan’s acclaimed contemporary art magazine, she expanded the spaces for art research. Niilofur has three books to her credit: A Beautiful Despair - The Art and Life of Meher Afroz (Lé Tropical Printers, 2020), Pioneering Perspectives (Ferozsons, 1998) and Pakistan’s Radioactive Decade: An Informal Cultural History of the 1970s (2019) (co-edited with John McCarry and Amin Gulgee, Oxford University Press). She also co-established NuktaArt: Pakistan’s Contemporary Art Magazine. She is currently writing her fourth book on early art histories of Karachi. As a curator, Niilofur approaches exhibitions as provocative spaces. In 2025 she curated “…connecting the internal and external time …” the First Retrospective of Meher Afroz (2025). Her global engagements include being the current chair of the “Censorship and Freedom of Expression Committee” at International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and serving as a member of the International Institute of Public Art Prize at Shanghai University and being on the jury of AICA Young Critic Awards.

Atteqa Malik is an accomplished entrepreneur, artist, scholar, and cultural operator with a strong background in international collaboration, creative diplomacy, and civic engagement. Currently serving as Chairperson of the Karachi Biennale Trust, Director at GIA International Exports Pvt. Ltd., as a member of the Executive Committee at Indus Valley School of Arts & Architecture, and Board Director at Pakistan UK and Ireland Business Council. Leading cross-cultural initiatives and fostering global partnerships. Recognized for promoting Pakistani exports to Europe and UK, supporting SME’s, facilitating trade and cultural dialogue between countries and intercultural exchanges through art and technology.

is a Karachi based free lance fine art consultant, curator and researcher. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore. During her studio practice she has worked on commissions for the Pakistan Navy and private collectors. Since 2006 Bushra’s expertise has been in Fine Art Administration and Gallery Management, having worked with some of the leading non-profit and commercial art galleries in Karachi; VM Art Gallery, ArtChowk the Gallery and Canvas Gallery. She works independently through her consulting practice; Art Advisory.

has worked as a sculptor from his studio in Karachi for more than two decades. A graduate of Yale University, he received a BA in Art History and Economics in 1986 and won the 'Conger B. Goodyear Fine Arts Award' for his senior thesis. He has exhibited extensively both at home and abroad, with more than 30 solo exhibitions and several international group shows. The artist is also known for his performance works and has been active as a curator since the late 1990s, conceiving large-scale exhibitions at the Karachi Sheraton, and at the Amin Gulgee Gallery. Amin has received numerous awards, including the President’s Pride of Performance in 2005.

has a Doctorate in Numismatics and holds a post-doctorate fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She served in the Department of Archaeology and Museums from 1990 to 2006 in various positions and as Editor at the Tribune Daily and Travelogue Magazine. From 2006 to date, she has been working as Director, State Bank of Pakistan Museum and Art Gallery, the first monetary museum in Pakistan. She has also served as a consultant to various museums over the years. Dr Ibrahim has also been working as the Head, Pakistan Archaeological Mission, in collaboration with the French and Italian missions at Bhambore, Sindh, since 2011 to date, carrying out several excavations, notably in the Indus delta region, where she discovered an underwater city. She has established a Centre for Archaeology and Environmental Research as Founding Member. Another foundation, “Terracotta, a project and the Zohra Ibrahim Foundation” has been established by her personal funding.

Farzana Tunio has worked in the challenging field of design and advertising both in Pakistan and in the USA and received an award at the Art Direction magazine's ‘Creativity Show’ in New York for her calendar design. Her logo design for Interwood Pvt. Ltd, a furniture company, has withstood the test of time. She is also a visiting faculty at Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture and is working on her dream project, setting up a ‘Visual Arts College’ at the newly adopted campus the the 180 year old heritage site ‘NJV School’, by ‘Akhuwat’ a non-profit organization of which she is the Co-Chairperson of their Core Committee in Sindh. Besides arts, she also manages ‘Hennys’ her sandwich deli.

is a freelance artist who graduated with a distinction in fine arts from the prestigious National College of Arts in Lahore. She has been an art educator for over two decades and has taught at some of the country’s most prominent art institutions like the National College of Arts, Lahore, The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi and the Karachi University’s Visual Studies Department. Masuma has exhibited her work widely in group shows within Pakistan and abroad and has four solo shows to her credit. She has won many awards including the Sadequain award and the medal for Star Girl by South Asia Publications. Currently Masuma is a part of the core committee of The Karachi Biennale 2017, and is in charge of its public outreach programme.

Ainee Shehzad Salim is a Valedictorian Commonwealth scholar. She holds a Civil Engineering degree along with a Bachelor in Education and a Master in Education and International Development from the Institute of Education, UCL. She is the Head of Department of Continuing Professional Development at the Karachi Grammar School, College Section. She is a CIE PDQ Programme Leader, has authored scholarly articles on education and development and also teaches A and O Level Mathematics. Ainee is an external mentor at IBA, Chairperson Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre Fundraising Committee, Member Development in Literacy, Member, College of Teachers, England. She runs a successful furniture, interior designing and event management company. She has pioneered educational change by teacher development in many under-privileged schools. She was recently acknowledged as the Top 100 Women of Pakistan in the Ponds Miracle Woman celebration. She is an avid art collector.

is the director and curator of VM Art Gallery, Karachi, and a leading art space of the country. It is a concern of the ZVMG Rangoonwala Trust. Riffat has been practicing as an artist for the last forty years, having graduated from Karachi School of Art. She has worked on projects of UNTAD GATT, Geneva, for craft development in collaborations with Sindh Small Industries, Pakistan, and is the only artist in the country, known to work with the natural earth and earth pigments as a medium. Riffat Alvi has many exhibitions to her credit, having traveled widely for workshops and residencies around the globe; a distinguished resume of both national and international shows. At the helm of VM, Riffat has been a pioneer in promoting emerging art and artists, regional and international artists and exhibitions through her rich gallery program for the last twenty-eight years. Her constant strive and passion for art education and creativity, while keeping up with global trends in the field of visual arts has pushed the VM Art Gallery to great heights.