Art exhibit from Rahim Hamid ’26 opens August 8 in Minneapolis Arts District

How many college students can say they’ve had their artwork exhibited at a professional gallery before turning 21? Abdul Rahim Hamid ’26 will join those ranks soon! Hamid, a 2024 resident intern artist fellow for the Northeast Sculpture Gallery Factory, will have their work exhibited from August 8–10 at Northeast Sculpture Gallery in Minneapolis. 

Hamid’s show will touch on many themes stemming from their experience growing up in Pakistan and immigrating to the United States. As an immigrant, Hamid is constantly examining — and reexamining — their core identities amid a sea of people who share very different experiences from them. Undergoing a “rigorous process of self-examination,” Hamid takes different pieces of their identity and takes a closer look through their art to make a “somewhat coherent picture” of who they actually are.

“In my work, I’m examining my relationship to my native language,” said Hamid. “I’m looking at the history of Pakistan, the impact of dictatorship. I’m looking at my religion, my relationship with it, the anxieties that I have around it. I’m looking at memories and experience of animal sacrifice, of public speaking and debating, of immigration, and of being a foreigner.”

All of these disparate pieces are united by their creator, all being tied back to Hamid and Hamid’s relationship with the past. 

Embodying this theme is one of Hamid’s favorite pieces of the exhibit. The title, translated from Urdu, is, “My Mind Wanders When I Pray.” A continuation of work Hamid has done at Carleton, it is a 7.5 ft by 4 ft, ink-based abstract drawing.

“I’m writing in my native language of Urdu, and I’m writing anything that comes to mind around a few topics like death, love, nation, history, and the past,” said Hamid. “These are all very well-threaded subjects in Urdu poetry and literature.”

As the black ink winds along the white paper, the words build together to create a much larger and flowing abstract pattern. For Hamid, the art is found both in the finished product and the process.

“It’s art. It’s a way of keeping present and thinking about concepts I’m exploring in other work,” Hamid said. “It’s been quite soothing to work on, because I don’t get to use Urdu as much here as back home, and it’s essentially letting me journal while creating art.”

This fellowship has been monumental in allowing Hamid to identify greater life goals. Art is not a hobby for Hamid, but a way of life.

“[Art making] is the main way that I can convince myself to actually live life,” said Hamid. “Art, simply put, gives me permission to live freely in order to make my practice the best it can be.”

Having the chance to experience art making outside of the classroom, creating not as a student but as an artist preparing for an exhibition, has been eye-opening for Hamid. 

“Solely focusing on art making is something I know now I really want to pursue for the rest of my life,” Hamid said. “Having my own studio, having my own shows and exhibitions, and interacting with the community has been wonderful. It’s something that I really want to do in the future. There’s something really nice about looking back on a body of work that you’ve made. Even looking at what I’ve done over the past month is an immensely satisfying process.”

Art Making Process

Hamid’s art making process begins not in the studio, but the library, with “lots of reading” spanning from art catalogs of global scope to books on Islamic futurism, the history of Pakistan, and influential artists. 

“I let what I learn sit in the back of my mind until I find somewhere where it fits,” Hamid said.

As ideas ruminate, Hamid refines their technical skills, ending their days by drawing images from Pinterest and their own personal image catalog, a collection of about a thousand photographs that they’ve taken over the years. This daily practice allows Hamid to get in the habit of working with their hands, so when an idea strikes, “there’s no hesitation.” 

“During all this reading, drawing, and looking, I’m thinking about all of it,” Hamid said. “It’s inevitable when you immerse yourself in this much observation that you’ll have ideas for paintings and drawings and sculptures where you’re referencing work that came before, where you’re looking at your environment, you’re looking at things that are happening.” 

As varied as their majors (computer science and studio art), Hamid uses a variety of mediums in their artistic process. 

“Currently, I’m working primarily with oil painting,” Hamid said. “The caveat being that I’m additionally working on ink-based abstract pieces, pastel on wood, metal sculptures, and video art.” 

Using multiple mediums allows Hamid to more freely express themself through their art, with certain types of ideas requiring the physicality of specific mediums. 

“I use what I know about a lot of different mediums to convey an idea or line of thinking that I have in my head,” Hamid said. “If there is something that I want to do quickly I’ll switch over to pastel, but if I want to really sit down and focus on details and specifics, I’ll do an oil painting, because for me, that medium lends itself well to slowing down. Or, if I feel like a piece requires more solidity and multiple viewing directions, I’ll turn to sculpture and found material.”

Hamid spends many hours in the studio, “a really nice working space” that enables them to work at a scale much larger than ever before. Working with an exhibit in mind motivates Hamid to go big and be ambitious in their artistic endeavors. To achieve these goals, Hamid is spending eight to nine hours a day creating.

“I feel obligated to spend as much time working as I can,” Hamid said. “I’m extremely aware of how special this opportunity is. I’m making sure that what I put forward for the show is something that I can be proud of, even years later.”

Hamid has noticed a difference in creating as a student versus as a “working artist.”

“There’s more seriousness attached to the work that I’m doing now than there is as a student,” said Hamid. “You have a few bad pieces as a student, you just redo them, you improve on them the next time. But as an artist, the work that goes into a show is perhaps the first impression that people are going to get of you, and you might not get a second shot.”

Community

This opportunity provides Hamid not only a physical space to create, but also a community in which to flourish. Down the hall is a furniture maker using scrap metal, next door is a stonemason, and painters abound in neighboring studios. 

“You really get the whole range of people in different parts of the artist community, from professional to academia to even just hobbyists who are working here,” said Hamid. “You’re really getting exposed to a lot of people, a lot of different practices.”

All are “super friendly” and “interested” in the art being made around them. Actively engaging in each other’s art making processes, artists can be seen stopping by other studios to ask what people are doing, and whether any feedback would be helpful.

Many art professors from Carleton supplement the vibrant arts community in Minneapolis. Not only has Hamid stayed in regular contact this summer with the majority of the studio art department at Carleton, multiple professors — including David Lefkowitz ’85, professor of art; Dan Bruggeman, senior lecturer in art, emeritus; and Xavier Tavera Castro, assistant professor of art — have visited Hamid’s studio to review their work and offer advice. 

“I just want to get across how supportive Carleton has been in this endeavor,” said Hamid, “how supportive the residency in general has been towards me, and how invested they are in seeing me improve over the course of these ten weeks.”