Now dividing his time between Sydney, Quetta and Kabul, Khadim Ali was born in 1978 as an Afghan refugee in Quetta, Pakistan. Belonging to the Hazara minority in Afghanistan, his family had to move and settle in Pakistan. With his obsession towards miniatures, he first studied mural painting and calligraphy in Tehran (1998-99) and later received a scholarship to do his BA in miniature painting at the prestigious National college of Arts, Lahore (2003) where he was awarded with Haji Sharif award in miniature painting. He was further honoured by two artist residencies in Japan and went on to do an MA in Fine arts at the University of South Wales, Sydney. Apart from his solo exhibitions in Chawkandi Art Gallery in Karachi, Green Cardamom in London and other places, he also actively organized and participated in The Haunted Lotus: Contemporary Art from Kabul, Cross Art Projects (2010), and The Force of Forgetting, Lismore Regional Gallery, Australia (2011).

Ali’s work reflects his deep interest in his culture, especially looking at Persian tales and miniature paintings while experimenting in different mediums and scales. Known for depicting gigantic demons, Ali is inspired by the famed Shahnameh of Persia and weaves his own narrative using them.