writer, researcher, editor

— stories, art history, sci-fi, grief, feminist histories, trees, rebels, publishing

Saira Ansari (b. 1982, Sao Paulo) is an independent writer, researcher and editor who employs creative non-fiction to think about art practice and criticism, feminist histories, gardens, grief, science fiction, and South Asia and its real and imagined peripheries.

As an editor, Ansari has worked with a wide range of artists and writers from across South Asia, the Middle East and Iran and projects include monographs Bani Abidi: The Artist Who (Hatje Cantz, 2022), Khalil Rabah: Falling Forward / Works [1995–2025] (Sharjah Art Foundation, 2022) and the upcoming volume Sahand Hesamiyan: Primary Structures (Black Dog Press, 2024).

Ansari has served as a Contributing Editor (Art) for the South Asian literary journal Papercuts; Managing Editor of Art in the Age of Anxiety (Sharjah Art Foundation/Mörel Books, 2020), and monographs of Abbas Akhavan (SKIRA, 2018) and Pouran Jinchi (Akkadia Press, 2019); and as Arts Correspondent at The Rio Times (2010).

She has contributed essays to monographs on Lala Rukh, Fahd Burki, Timo Nasseri and Pacita Abad, and several exhibition catalogues and publications including The Library of Unread Books (Jameel Arts Centre, UAE, 2019) and Everything we do is Music (Drawing Room and Cornerhouse Publications, UK, 2017). Her texts have also appeared in: Art Asia Pacific, Mousse Magazine, Art Monthly UK, Flash Art, Canvas, Harper’s Bazaar Art Arabia, ArtNow Pakistan, Herald Magazine, The Friday Times, Tribe, Khaleej Times, and Alserkal.Online. 

From 2017-2021, Ansari worked in Publications and Research at the Sharjah Art Foundation, where she managed book projects and the FOCAL POINT art book fair. Earlier, she was Director of Communications at The Third Line, Dubai. At present, she is a consultant on publications and research at Misk Art Institute in Riyadh.

Curatorial projects include The importance of staying quiet (Yallay Gallery, Hong Kong, 2014); within | without (Asia House, London, 2018); and moonshow (Grey Noise, Dubai, 2018).

Ansari’s research focuses on Pakistani modernist Zubeida Agha and projects include the Zubeida Agha Archive, hosted by Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong), made possible through the Lahore Biennale Foundation Research Fellowship (2016).

— Zubeida Agha archive on Asia Art Archive: link