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"The object is'nt to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable."

Robert Henri

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Itayecxi AlvarezApril 10, 2026Sabiha Iqbal is a remarkably versatile artist whose work has been presented across a range of galleries and cultural spaces. Each of her exhibitions offers a distinct experience, revealing the breadth of her styles and mediums as she conveys both hopeful and darker, more introspective themes. Time in this Scribblings of The Times feels layered and cyclical, where memory is something inherited, intimate, and continuously unfolding through feeling rather than documentation. In contrast, The World as We Open Our Eyes engages with the immediacy of the present moment. Together, these exhibitions show an evolution in Iqbal’s practice from poetic introspection to global engagement. While both bodies of work emphasize movement, emotion, and interconnectedness, they differ in how they situate the viewer: one invites reflection inward through memory and poetry, and the other pushes outward toward awareness of contemporary realities. Itayecxi: You talk about constant movement and change, and I can see that in your artwork, can you tell me about the ways Scribblings of The Time and this exhibition, The World as We Open Our Eyes, each reflect a different relationship to time and memory?Sabiha Iqbal: In Scribblings of the Time, my relationship to time and memory is deeply reflective and rooted in poetry, especially the work of my mother, Ada Jafarey, whose words shape the emotional and visual language of the paintings. In The World as We Open Our Eyes, time is not reflective but urgent, unfolding through the incorporation of newspaper clippings, text, and references to current events.Itayecxi: How are human figures treated differently in each body of work?Sabiha: The human figures in these works are expressive but softened, almost poetic themselves, functioning less as specific individuals and more as embodiments of emotion and rhythm. The figures in The World ad We Open Our Eyes become more fragmented and layered, embedded within a broader social and political context, suggesting that identity is shaped by collective experience and global realities. Itayecxi: How does the depiction of interconnectedness between humans and nature evolve between the two shows?Sabiha: Similarly, the natural elements, such as flowers, skies, and organic forms become symbolic, reflecting an inner world where humans and nature exist in harmony. In this exhibition Scribblings of The Time, the “world” is constructed as something internal and imagined, shaped by memory, language, and introspection. In contrast, with The World as We Open Our Eyes, the relationship between humans and nature also shifts. No longer just symbolic, it becomes more direct and ecological, addressing issues like climate change and interconnected systems of impact. Itayecxi: How does each exhibition construct a sense of the world, is it internal, imagined, or externally observed?Sabiha: In this exhibition Scribblings of The Time, the “world” is constructed as something internal and imagined, shaped by memory, language, and introspection. But in The World as We Open Our Eyes, the “world” is externally observed and mediated through information, creating a sense of witnessing rather than remembering. Together, these two bodies of work reflect my movement from an introspective, poetic exploration of memory toward a more outward engagement with the complexities of the contemporary world.Source: https://discerningeye.substack.com/p/state...

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