Hexagon and Margins

Nabeel Naveed, MFA 2026, Painting

I ground my image-making practice in conjoining lenses of paint as a medium and subject representing the everyday life of the city as my source material, where narratives of quotidian social struggles speak to wider political realities in Pakistan and beyond. I present this complexity of politics as my beingness; Implicated in the plurality of temporal identity, popular imagination and constructions of memory and fiction. This arrangement of agency with the land, people and nation-state are built through associations of native ecology, urban palimpsest and weathering.

"Hexagon and Margins" Installation View, Dimensions Variable, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"cloud" 8.5" x 12" Oil on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Green Stain" 13" x 17" Oil on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Eucalyptus & Complaint" 72" x 54" Oil on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Ratio 3" 8.5" x 12" Oil & Acrylic on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"(Rice) Field" 68" x 96" Oil & Pigment on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Grid & Eucalyptus" 8.5" x 12" Oil on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Blood River" 12" x 8.5" Oil on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"MNA Posters" 68" x 100" Oil & Pigment on Muslin, Detail, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Planes of Violence" 12" x 8.5" Oil on Muslin Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Margins" 12" x 8.5" Oil on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

"Public Wall" 68" x 96" Oil & Pigment on Muslin, Photo Credit: John Carlano

Nabeel Naveed (b. 1997) is from Lahore, Pakistan. He holds a BFA in Studio Painting from the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, USA.

In 2025, Naveed exhibited in Memory and Material at Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, and Fugue/Body, a three-person exhibition at Khaas Contemporary, Lahore. His work was also included in the Experimental Video Art Exhibition presented by Twelve Gates in collaboration with the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF).

Naveed was featured in New American Paintings, No. 183 (MFA Annual Issue, Fall 2025), juried by Rory Padeken, and in SENSUS, Issue 02 (2026), as a featured artist.

He is currently based in Philadelphia, USA.

Instagram: @nabee1naveed