Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai (b. 1988) is an Indian artist based in Weimar. She was born in Najibabad and has lived in India and Afghanistan before moving to Germany.
Arshi gained her Undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the Aligarh Muslim University, and her Graduate degree from the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Her work incorporates words and visuals in a manner that might be seen as reminiscent of fragments of ancient texts, and of personal journals. Motifs like the pomegranate, chair, takhti, gardens and heart appear repeatedly in Arshi’s visuals pointing at her interest in the tense threads that connect womanhood, identity, culture, history and power. While Arshi’s underlying concerns and enquiries as an artist have, to a large extent, remained constant over the years, she has approached her concerns from several perspectives – each unique to her position as a South Asian woman. Arshi borrows from fable and lore, philosophy and poetry to bring together a compelling case for agency.
She is one of the recipients of the Artist Fellowship 2022-23 at Bauhaus University, Germany; a poetry grant supported by the Riyadh National Museum, Saudi Arabia in 2021; the ‘Five Million Incidents’ project supported by Goethe Institute and Raqs Media Collective in 2020; and the INLAKS Fine Art Award in 2019.