Farwah Rizvi is a visual artist born in Lahore, Pakistan and currently based in Queens, New York. She is pursuing an MFA in Studio Art at Hunter College.
Her interdisciplinary practice spans oil painting, water-based media, and printmaking, often unfolding across a variety of surfaces including wood, paper, linen, silk, and glass. Drawing inspiration from Persian, Indian, and Mughal miniature painting, Rizvi uses storytelling as a foundation to explore the psychological and symbolic terrain of inner demons. Rizvi’s work delves into the complexities of personal and collective identity through imaginative depictions of demon-like figures. These forms are not literal monsters but serve as manifestations of internal voices and emotional states, sometimes humorous or harmless, other times unsettling or chaotic. Her imagery prompts viewers to confront their own interpretations of these creatures, inviting introspection about what we fear, hide, or find absurd within ourselves.
Printmaking plays a significant role in Rizvi’s recent work, offering a means to explore repetition, layering, and transformation. Techniques such as rubbings, screen-printing, monotypes and laser cutting enable her to navigate the tension between spontaneity and control. Through this process, she creates variations of the same image, mirroring the repetitive and shifting nature of thought, memory, and struggle. Her work aims to bring these fragments together into a cohesive visual experience that reflects the perpetual negotiation between inner turmoil and external influence.
By reimagining traditional motifs through contemporary processes, Rizvi constructs a world where myth, personal history, and psychological landscapes merge offering viewers a space to reflect on the demons they carry and the narratives they build around them.
