Nasreen Haroon was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1952 and has been living in Santa Monica since 1980, painting seriously since 1992.
Nasreen is known for her warm and peaceful spaces that convey a sacred rapport with the vast expanse and grandeur of nature and as evidenced by the rich, warm hues that both soothe and invigorate the viewer in a concurrent kind of infinite rhythm.
Nasreen’s brushstrokes bear witness to the fundamental presence behind the merely visible, creating works of art that are spiritual at the core. Whether she is inspired by the profound, mystical images of her childhood in Karachi, Pakistan, or by California’s rich landscape, Nasreen’s optimistic passion for life is evident in the panoply of colors set forth by each deliberate brush stroke.
Nasreen’s work has been exhibited around the world including at the Florence Biennale, Sharjah Cultural Palace, and Bergamot Station, among others. An invited participant in the “Art in Embassies” program, her work has hung in the US embassies in Islamabad Pakistan, Dakar Senegal, Abu Dhabi UAE, Algiers Algeria, Abuja Nigeria, and Riyadh Saudi Arabia. She was appointed Cultural Envoy to the UAE in 2007 where she taught nine master classes in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai. She also represented the United States as “American Artist Abroad” in Algeria in 2008.
In the midst of her primary career, Nasreen also began a longtime passion as a speaker on cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity—a platform she uses in order to change people’s minds in a positive way and teach others to be more accepting and understanding of people, no matter their backgrounds or creeds. As a Muslim-American, she has been able to utilize her own experiences to illustrate her points. Her expertise on this topic has led to several impactful positions, including co-chair of the Muslim-Jewish Dialogue, board member of the Santa Monica Bay Interfaith Council, founding board member of Los Angeles Chapter of Developments in Literacy, Vice President of the Pakistan Arts Council of USC Pacific Asia Museum, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Islamic Center of Southern California. In recognition of her outstanding achievements within her civic work, Nasreen was honored with a Trailblazer Award from NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change.
Exhibitions / Public Collections
Florence Biennale (Florence, Italy)
Art Chowk (Karachi, Pakistan)
ARTA Gallery (Toronto, Canada)
Whole 9 Gallery (Culver City, USA)
Schomburg Gallery at Bergamot Station (Santa Monica, USA)
Islamic Art Museum (Dubai, UAE)
Sharjah Cultural Palace (Sharjah, UAE)
Higher Colleges of Technology, Women’s Campus (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
US Embassy (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
US Embassy (Islamabad, Pakistan)
US Embassy (Dakar, Senegal)
US Embassy (Algiers, Algeria)
US Embassy (Abuja, Nigeria)
US Embassy (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
US Embassy (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
USC Pacific Asia Museum
Lectures / Workshops
NJV School (Karachi, Pakistan)
Campbell Hall High School (Los Angeles, USA)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, USA)
California Institute of Arts (Los Angeles, USA)
Santa Monica College (Santa Monica, USA)
California State University (Los Angeles, USA)
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA)
Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts (Algiers, Algeria)
Academy Museum of Fine Arts (Algiers, Algeria)
Algerian National Library (Algiers, Algeria)
Musée Des Beaux Arts (Algiers, Algeria)
Galerie D’art Farid Benyaa (Algiers, Algeria)
Palais de la Culture (El Madania, Algeria)
Higher Colleges of Technology, Women’s Campus (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
Accolades
Honoree, Distinguished Worldwide Humanitarian Award (2022, 2019)
Honoree, Who’s Who of Professional Women, Marquis Who’s Who (2022)
Featured Member, Marquis Millennium Magazine, Marquis Who’s Who (2022)
Inductee, Top Professionals of the Year, Marquis Who’s Who (2021, 2019)
Recipient, Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (2019)
Featured Listee, “Who’s Who in America,” Marquis Who’s Who (2009, 2001-2007)
Getty-USC Journalism Fellowship Program participant
Honoree, United States Representative, American Artist Abroad, Algeria (2008)
Featured Listee, “Who’s Who in the World,” Marquis Who’s Who (2004, 2002)
Featured Listee, “Who’s Who of American Women,” Marquis Who’s Who (2001-2007)
Recipient, Youth Day Planner Award, Westside Interfaith Council (1998)
Featured, “Beyond the Beltway”
Featured, “Mid-East Report”
Featured, “The God Squad”
Features, “Week in Review”
Recipient, Trailblazer Award, New Ground, Muslim Jewish Partnership for Change
We associate the concept and practice of alchemy — the transformation of one element to another, usually “higher” element — with (pseudo-)scientists of a time gone by. But the transformation of elements, base or not, into worthy forms is precisely the task of the artist. The elements stay the same, of course; most artists do not engage chemistry (orthodox or fantastical) in their formulations. But those formulations change lead and stone, oil and ink into things that could only have come about magically, outside the realm of nature because they are inside the realm of culture. It is a change not of element into element, but of elements into apparitions, into things greater than the sum of their materials.
This is why Nasreen Haroon has called her latest series of abstractions “Alchemy.” For Haroon, the confabulation of a composition out of various stuff is a remarkable thing, a process so deep that it guides the artist rather than be guided. Of course, Haroon is sole author of these intense, alluring canvases; but the nature of the substances engaged dictates not only the movement of her hand but the discretion of her eye and the reflections of her brain. In its gross physicality, fine art is a direct collaboration between artist and nature, and the “Alchemy” paintings attest to, even demonstrate, this.
Ironically, with regard to Haroon, the goal element of traditional alchemy, gold, dominates the works that have led up to the “Alchemy” paintings, but recedes in prominence among the works in the series itself. Gold appears and reappears in the newest work, to be sure, but rarely does Haroon use it as more than a spice. Its restrained presence in the “Alchemy” works honors its power and gravity in the breach; more than a flecking of the precious element, its luster shimmering with the weight of both geology and history, consumes the painting. Indeed, several of Haroon’s pre-“Alchemy” canvases seem on fire with streaks of gold leaf. That exercise in a painterly Midas touch has given way to the more circumspect engagement of gold characteristic of the “Alchemy” works.
In fact, in some of the “Alchemy” paintings, the gold is hard to spot. And in others, there’s none to spot at all. It is as if the paintings are stakes in a gold rush, some yielding rich lodes, others nothing. But Haroon has made every claim worthy, conjuring a fulfilled painting no matter its material content. Again, the real “alchemy” is not in the production of gold, but in the production of artworks — artworks that in their capture of both natural process (scumbling, dripping, streaking, pooling) and human sensibility reconfigure common and exotic materials into planes of experience, places for the eye to alight and delight and for the spirit to nestle and soar, conformations as natural as earth itself — because Haroon and her species are themselves — ourselves — natural.
American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, an ancestor to Haroon’s style and working method, was once asked if he worked from nature. “I am nature,” he replied, indicating that his art and his humanity were themselves natural occurrences, parts of the living world. The would-be science of alchemy is not natural in and of itself, but it does address itself to the natural way of things, determining a kind of aspirational poetry: wouldn’t it be nice if it were actually possible to make gold out of lead. Equally natural, Pollock insisted and Haroon avers, is making art out of gold and lead both, and many other substances besides — natural not only because these substances are of the earth, but because their reconfiguration into artworks is a human endeavor, which is as natural as the behaviors of animals, plants, and minerals. Nasreen Haroon does not need to practice actual alchemy to realize transformative results. She needs only select her paints — gold among them — and set to work.
— Peter Frank, 2019