Osman Yousefzada
Osman Yousefzada is a British-born interdisciplinary artist and writer of Pakistani heritage whose practice spans sculpture, installation, textile, moving image, garment making and performance. Grounded in storytelling, his work draws on autobiography, fiction and ritual to explore migration, displacement and the ways bodies carry history, memory and transformation.
Working across multiple mediums, Yousefzada examines the social and political structures that shape identity, belonging and exclusion. His work frequently considers the ruptures and continuities of migrational experience, bringing together personal narratives and collective histories to reflect on questions of movement, inheritance and cultural memory. Through sculpture, installation, performance and moving image, he creates immersive environments in which the body becomes a site of both resistance and possibility.
His work has been presented internationally at institutions including Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, Ikon Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Design Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Lahore Museum and the Dhaka Art Summit. Recent projects include What Is Seen and What Is Not (2022), a series of site-specific interventions at the Victoria and Albert Museum marking the 75th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence, and a major installation at Palazzo Franchetti presented in conjunction with the 60th Venice Biennale.
Alongside his artistic practice, Yousefzada is a Research Practitioner at the Royal College of Art and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge. His memoir, The Go-Between (2022), won the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize and was
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Solo Exhibitions & Special Projects
2026 With The Certainty of Tides, Still I Rise, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK
2025 Arrivals, Islamic Biennale, Saudi Biennale Foundation, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2024–25 When Will We Be Good Enough?, The Box, Plymouth, UK
2024 Welcome! A Palazzo for Immigrants, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, Italy
2024 Where it Began, Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK
2024 Possession I, Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK
2023 Queer Feet, Charleston Firle, Sussex, UK
2023 Embodiments of Memory, British Ceramics Biennale, Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
2023 Rituals & Spells, Cromwell Place, London, UK
2022 What is Seen and What is Not, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2021 Infinity Pattern 1, Ikon Gallery and Selfridges Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
2018 Being Somewhere Else, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2018 Migrant Festival, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2013–19 The Collective, Editor and Publisher, International
2008–19 OSMAN, International
2005 Jerwood Commission, The Wapping Project, London, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Ablutions, Tate Modern, London, UK
2024 Drawing Room Biennale, London, UK
2023 More Immigrants Please, Artichoke, UK
2023 Like Paradise, Claridge's Art Space, London, UK
2023 New Contemporaries, Camden Art Centre, London, UK
2023 A New Dawn, A New Day, Art Bomb Factory Foundation, London, UK
2023 Sculpture, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India
2023 An Immigrant's Room of Her Own, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2023 Alea iacta est, Vistamare, Milan, Italy
2022 Spaces of Transcendence, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2021 Glassstress, Berengo Studio, Venice, Italy
2021 RELAY, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy
2020 Her Dreams Are Bigger, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2020 A Rich Tapestry, Lahore Biennale, Lahore, Pakistan
2020 Volcano Extravaganza, Stromboli, Italy
2018 Total Antasthrope, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2018 The Fabric of India, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, USA
2017 The Fabric of India, Ringling Museum, Sarasota, USA
2013 The Wedding Dresses 1775–2014, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2011–12 Reconstruction, British Council Touring Exhibition
2008 Designs of the Year, Design Museum, London, UK
2005 Film + Fiction, Jerwood Space, London, UK
Public Collections
Arts Council Collection
Government Art Collection
Victoria and Albert Museum
Kiran Nadar Museum
Mittal Collection
Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation & Collection
Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
National Museum Scotland
Saudi Biennale Foundation
