Born in Karachi, Pakistan, raised in Poughkeepsie, NY, and currently residing in Washington, DC. Her bicultural background fuels her art, embracing east and west culture. Sumrien Ali is a practicing architect and designer. Sumrien sees architecture as an art and a science. It is the act of taking the abstract and building a reality. Art, on the other hand, starts with reality and builds an abstract representation of it. She is drawn to producing abstract works because of the creative freedom they allow: They have no boundaries, rules, or regulations as with architecture, but support limitless emotions and possibilities.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Sumrien Ali’s paintings invite viewers to step outside themselves and see the world through her lens - one shaped by emotion, curiosity, and discovery. By combining dynamic color combinations, layers, and texture, Sumrien strives to create movement and to explore the journey of discovery, life, and depth. Her art is a bold expression of emotion, energy, and intuition. She works primarily with bold pigments and a palette knife, building textures, layers of movement that are meant to be felt as much as seen. The vibrancy in her work is intentional: it challenges quiet, passive spaces; it dares the viewer to engage in a dialogue emotionally charged with complexities and contradictions. In latest work, her art has strong focus on transcending history, politics and culture in a new perspective.