Am I Human Yet? 2021
Am I Human Yet? 2021
Autobiographic at its core and characterized by precise brushes and bold colors, Nadia Waheed’s work focuses on themes such as integration, diversity and identity.
Nadia Waheed (b. 1992, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia) is a Pakistani-American painter living and working in Austin, Texas. She holds a BFA in Painting & Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2015). Her work consists largely of allegorical, large-scale figurative paintings that explore themes of female selfhood, cultural identity, choice, rebirth, and redemption. Waheed often uses imagery drawn from her transnational upbringing, religious and mythological motifs, and plants / water / flora to render figures—particularly South Asian women—situated in dreamlike landscapes. Her painting is both visual and emotional inquiry; it raises questions about belonging, beauty standards, visibility, and the spiritual and psychological threads binding tradition and modernity.

Exhibitions include Noemata, Amex Yavuz, London (2025, solo); Where the Real Lies, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit (2025); Liang Fu, Chantal Khoury, Daniel Pitín, Nadia Waheed, Nicodim, Los Angeles (2024); The Ballad of the Children of the Czar, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (2024); VAMPIRE::MOTHER curated by Jasmine Wahi, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles (2024); A Strange Icarus, Nicodim, Los Angeles (2023, solo); MATERNITY LEAVE: NONE OF WOMEN BORN, Nicodim in collaboration with the Green Family Foundation, Dallas, DISEMBODIED, Nicodim, New York (2023); Wonder Women II, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2022); Heavy Bend, Gallery 1957, London (2022, solo); YOU ME ME YOU, Nicodim, Los Angeles (2022); Wonder Women, Jeffrey Deitch, New York (2022); Madeleine Bialke, M. Florine Démosthène, Sahara Longe, Nadia Waheed, Alexander Berggruen, New York (2022); Am I Human Yet, Arsenal Contemporary New York (2021, solo); I Climb, I Backtrack, I Float, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami (2020, solo); Sacred Vessel (pt.2), Arsenal Contemporary, New York (2020); She Came to Stay, Andrea Festa Fine Art, Rome (2021), Crossroads, Patel Gallery, Toronto (2020).