Marium Rana is an American-born Pakistani visual artist, who works primarily in ink and aqueous media. She is a graduate from Florida State University, where she received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Studio Art in 2013 and a Masters in Art Education in 2014. For five years, Marium taught fine art and art history in Tampa, Florida. Marium currently resides in Oklahoma with her husband and baby, Safiya, where she paints from her home studio.
In the summer of 2011, during her time in art school, Marium received an undergraduate research grant to study traditional Mughal miniature painting in Lahore, Pakistan. Marium studied with Professor Naheed Fakhar of the National College of Arts, the top fine arts school in Pakistan. This traditional technique includes painting with a brush made from one hair of a squirrel’s tail. Following this experience, The Qalam Series arised. The Qalam Series consists of twenty-one 8x11 inch paintings. The aesthetics of this series were inspired the traditional ornamentation of the region and modern day street art in Pakistan. Marium has curated numerous art exhibitions, held solo exhibitions, and exhibited throughout the United States. When she is not painting in her studio, she has served as the design chair for TEDxFSU, painted various murals, has been commissioned by Aramco World Magazine, and presented her research at symposiums and various institutions.
Currently, Marium is working on a series of 22x30 inch paintings. The series, A Place to Call Home, delves into the complexity of belonging to two different cultures and trying to make a home out of stories of places and moments one has not personally experienced. The paintings depict landscapes that do not exist our tangible world and seem as imaginary as the places that have existed before us.
