Sarah Zia, born on September 14, 1989, in Lahore, Pakistan, is an accomplished artist known for her skills in miniature painting. She was diagnosed as being Deaf at the age of six months and has found her voice and expression in the world of art.
At a young age of one and a half years, Sarah began wearing a harness carrying a pocket- size hearing aid and started receiving speech therapy sessions. Her determination and hard work led her to join a special school for children with impaired hearing when she was three years old. Throughout her academic career, Sarah excelled in her studies and consistently achieved top scores.
Following her intermediate education, Sarah pursued her dream by attending Hunerkada, a private art institute in Lahore. Driven by her passion, she successfully gained admission to the fine art department of the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, which is widely regarded as the country’s most prestigious art college. In 2015, Sarah graduated from NCA with a major in Miniature Painting, earning academic excellence, distinctions, and honors.
Sarah’s artistic journey was fueled by her struggle to communicate her thoughts and feelings in words due to her hearing impairment. Instead, she found solace and direct expression through drawing and painting, which became her favorite language. Sarah’s ability to lip-read and her limited vocabulary led her to rely on art as a means of conveying her ideas, emotions, and experiences.
The world around Sarah, devoid of sound, resembles a silent film with missing pieces. Her unique perspective and the feeling of half-perception strongly influence her artistic expression. Through her art, Sarah strives to emphasize the intensity of her ideas by employing various techniques and strokes in miniature painting. Sarah’s talent and dedication have not gone unnoticed. Even before officially entering the art market, her thesis on miniature painting captivated the interest of critics and collectors. Nature has very well compensated her with intellect and wisdom, Sarah’s mind brims with ideas waiting to be transformed onto canvas.
As an artist, Sarah Zia continues to explore various artistic mediums beyond miniature painting, including calligraphy, oil painting, sculpture, and photography. Her work serves as a testament to her indomitable spirit and the power of art to transcend barriers and communicate with profound beauty.
Through the medium of miniature painting, I have embraced my identity as a Deaf individual. I’ve made a conscious choice not to let my Deafness define me but rather to shape it on my own terms. My artwork serves as a visual representation of sound and the emotions it awakens within me. Each day, we find ourselves pulled in various directions by the multitude of voices that reside in our memories – the voices of our parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, birds, machinery, and more. This sensory encounter with sound remains unfamiliar to me; it has never been a sweet symphony or a means of self-expression. Instead, it has molded my life into its present form, characterized by vibrations, static noise, and visual splendor in my relationship with sound. My work offers a fleeting glimpse into the world as I perceive it.
I extend an invitation to viewers to immerse themselves in reality through my creations. My art serves as a conduit for appreciating sound as I envision it, striving to capture the essence of sound as I perceive it. Through this endeavor, I aim to pay homage to the profound significance of sound.
My miniature painting seamlessly fuses time-honored techniques with contemporary finesse, reflecting my own distinctive signature style. My primary medium is Gouache on wasli, a specialized hand-bonded paper sheet enriched by the incorporation of luxurious elements such as 24K gold leaf and fluid gold into select compositions. This infusion of opulence not only adds grandeur but also elevates the visual allure when these artworks grace a wall.
