Meherunnisa Asad

A multidisciplinary artist, Meherunnisa Asad reinvents the heritage of applied arts through a resolutely contemporary lens. By combining stone mosaic with a constellation of artisanal crafts, she develops a subtle visual language in which the precision of ancestral techniques opens onto new forms of expression. Her practice affirms the continuity of a living heritage that she reinterprets and renews in the present, while fostering a collective reflection on memory, identity, and resilience.

From an early age, Meherunnisa Asad explored the art and antique bazaars of the historic city of Peshawar. A graduate of the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, and Pratt Institute in New York, she first worked as a conservation architect with the Aga Khan Historic Cities Program. Today, as Artistic Director of Studio Lél, founded thirty years ago by her mother Farhana, she is a recipient of awards from the Gates Foundation and the World Craft Council.

The art of stone mosaic lies at the heart of her artistic practice. For the Florentines of the Italian Renaissance in the 16th century, who brought Pietra Dura to its peak, this meticulous assembly of stones into complex and refined forms was regarded as an act of painting: a “painting in stone.” The technique was later embraced by the Mughal emperors and spread across the cultural territories of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. It can be admired in the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Sheesh Mahal at Lahore Fort, and the marble mosque of Kabul’s Bagh-e Babur, where Shah Jahan introduced Mughal stone carving and inlay.

Building on this shared heritage, Meherunnisa Asad further explores its creative possibilities by combining stone mosaic with a wide range of techniques: sculpture, verre églomisé, scagliola, cloisonné, as well as copper, brass, and woodwork. To this virtuoso garden, she adds references to the composite painting traditions of Indian and Persian art, incorporating precious and semi- precious stones into her works.

Meherunnisa Asad reinvents the art of stone as a dynamic and evolving language, while grounding her practice in cultural and societal engagement. For her, creation is inseparable from community resilience. Just as Pietra Dura brings together fragments in complex and harmonious compositions, she seeks to reunite a community fractured by conflict, creating spaces of healing, collaboration, and renewal.

Her practice is rooted in the Pashtun people, who straddle Afghanistan and Pakistan and whose culture has been shaped by a history of displacement and exile. By working with both local artisans and Afghan artisans displaced in Pakistan, she strengthens the transmission of artisanal crafts and fosters a collective reflection on memory and cultural identity. Through this process, she works toward the reappropriation of forgotten narratives and the reconstruction of Pashtun identity in Pakistan and on the international stage.

Born in 1977 in Peshawar, Pakistan, Meherunnisa Asad holds degrees from the National College of Arts in Lahore and Pratt Institute in New York. She currently lives between Egypt and Pakistan.