marium m. habib

Marium M. Habib’s artistic journey has been one of constant movement and cultural dialogue between Pakistan and England. This traversing of worlds has given her work a unique perspective on cultural dissonance and interpretation. 

Flailing bananas and wild-eyed monkey heads populate her paintings like characters in a fever dream, but these aren’t just playful figures, they’re protagonists in a deeper exploration of gender, power, and societal constraints. Her practice veers toward darker themes, but approaches them through a lens of joy, using humour as a gateway to engage with what might otherwise be impenetrable or uncomfortable subjects.

Her visual world thrives on a calculated ambiguity. The recurring ‘monkey tentacle head’ could be identified as a manifestation of the Freudian Id - those base desires and needs we layer with social conditioning and imposed morality. Through the characters in her menagerie, inspired by Paula Rego’s observation that ‘when you turn them into animals you can do anything,’ Marium examines power dynamics and social structures through visual metaphors and symbols.

In Marium’s hands, the physical act of painting becomes as vital as the narrative itself. Working primarily in oil paint on canvas, or linen prepared with traditional rabbit skin glue, she approaches each canvas with increasing openness, ‘putting paint where paint wants to go.’ Her technique embraces both precision and fluidity. She deliberately leaves works less articulated, allowing the work to veer towards abstraction and retain a sense of openness and movement. 

The resulting body of work spans smaller works that read as visual one-liners, and larger works where different motifs collaborate to form broader narratives. Some paintings tell stories of specific moments, while others explore broader themes of sexuality, consent, and power. Through her sophisticated interplay of humor and gravity, Marium creates paintings that are both immediately engaging and endlessly unfolding. Like the best observational comedy, they point out the absurdities we’ve stopped seeing, using familiar objects and animal imagery to navigate complex social dynamics. The result is art that seduces with color and humor before revealing its deeper contemplations on gender, orientalism, and the structures of power that shape these worlds.

Marium graduated from the Slade (MA, Fine Art) in 2024. The catalogue from her Crème Fraîche salon show can be viewed here.

IG: @mariumbob_studio

Artsy: artsy.net/artist/marium-m-habib