Niilofur Farrukh is a Karachi based art interventionist whose seminal initiatives have expanded the space for art publication, curation and public art. A long-time advocate for an interface between art and public audiences, she has curated exhibitions like No Honor in Killing that toured 5 small and big towns in the country for 2years. She has contributed as the Pakistan Commissioner at Tashkent Biennale, Asian Art Biennale and Kathmandu International Art Festival.
In Pakistan she co-founded ASNA and co-curated four iterations of ASNA Clay Triennials, the longest running Triennial in the country to connect to reclaim the craft-art continuum. In 2017, along with a group of colleagues she established the Karachi Biennale to instrumentalize art to connect a fractured city to itself, and the world with the country’s largest international art contemporary art event. Niilofur co- founded NuktaArt and served as its Founder Editor for the ten years it was in publication (2004-2014). Her book Pioneering Perspectives on pioneer women artists was aimed at countering the anti-women political narrative of the 1980s in her country. Niilofur is the President of AICA Pakistan and has served on the International Board of the International Art Critics Association.
She has written extensively for national and international publications. Her second book The 70s Pakistan’s Radioactive Decade: An Informal Cultural History of Pakistan (co-edited with Amin Gulgee and John MacCary) was launched in early 2019. A Beautiful Despair, an anthology of essays on eminent artist Meher Afroz, which she has edited, is expected soon. At present she is researching the art history of Karachi for a publication and documentary.