Sarah Ahmad

Sarah Amad’s immersive art invites transformative encounter with the earth, positioning engagement with the natural world as integral to wellness. She confronts environmental racism: the ‘nature gap’ experienced in marginalized communities, the disproportionate weight of climate disaster on rural and indigenous populations. The effects of (dis)connection with the earth. Her current work rests at the intersection of contested land, ecotherapy, and personal narrative. Considering our enmeshment with the earth, asking: how are we altered by the environment we have altered? How might we relate to the land in mutual care, outside colonial possession and capitalist extraction? Employing public art in service of community healing, Ahmad’s rootedness in Sacred Geometric principle—tracing patterns from micro|human to macro|cosmic—illuminate creation’s underlying oneness transcending borders.

Sarah Ahmad is a multi-media artist based in the American Southwest and Northern Pakistan. A Tulsa Artist Fellow (2019–23) and 2024 SOVERIGNTY resident at Santa Fe Art Institute, Ahmad has exhibited internationally—from Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum and CUNY’s James Gallery, NY to the Sharjah Art Museum, UAE; Lahore Museum, Pakistan; and Asia Triennial, Manchester. Her work has been featured in mainstream media (USA Today, NPR, PBS) and in art publications (ARTnews, Bomb, MIT). Her work has been funded by awards including the Andy Warhol Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. As an immigrant, working across national boundaries, Ahmad’s work rooted in earth centered healing with an awareness of geo-political environmental ties between global and local, positions her to bring voice from the—often marginalized—rural. ]

Sarah Ahmad is the Season III, 2024 International Residency Fellow.