Hurain Akram

Sea of Opportunities

Understanding place and feeling can be a very personal experience, as well as a very collective experience for many individuals. The Immigrant, the Tourist, and the Settler, all collectively experience certain places through their different world views, however all of these individuals can still be present within this area. Sea of Opportunities was one of 3 works that developed the notion of understanding place through the lens of those who travel to be there. (Victoria Empire Hotel, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Taken by Omar Abdul-Majid, 2016).

Artist Biography

Hurain Duaa Akram is a Pakistani-Canadian Artist from the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 Nations in Southern Alberta, and “Moh’kinsstis” Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 known as Calgary. She is in the midst of completing her BFA, 2023 and BeD, 2025 from the University of Calgary. Her practice is influenced by place and people, developed by aptitude for traveling, meeting new people, and hearing their personal stories. She has received the Merit Mckenzie Award Scholarship in 2019 for pursuing Fine arts in post-secondary education. Hurain has shown her work in many emerging artists juried exhibitions and private collections such as the Pentimento Collective, the Muslim Art Movement, and Yemen Art Relief. Her artistic practice engages with topics of global diaspora, body, place and acceptance. She aims to break stigmas around immigrants and migration and understand place and identity through her work. She enjoys doing graphic design, painting, and comic illustration, continuing her discussion of body, race and gender through these different media.

Artist statement

Through paintings and illustrations, I bring forth topics related to diaspora; including topics of race, immigration, cultural displacement, body, story, and acceptance. Through my lens as a Pakistani-Canadian, I want to develop stories, ideas, and works of art through my experience and shared experiences of others. I focus on the present day sentiment of the young South Asians in today's society. Ethnicity and culture outside of my homeland develops within another dimension of place that I can invite others to view and influence their own experiences and perceptions. The perseverance of all these cultures inspire my ideas and topics. Through media such as oil paint, gouache, and digital software, I recreate landscapes, character designs, bodies, stories and spaces to comment on, question, appreciate, and accept culture. My practice helps me best interpret the present global mixing pot and the diverse historical culture we see today. Through my experiences of Pakistani art and culture, I bring forth my diverse ethnic and current background to my process as its subjects. Using this cultural, diverse, and international knowledge network I experience within Canada, further helps me observe and develop understanding of the empathetic emotions that exist in our communities and demonstrate them through objects, places, or people as my subjects. The disconnect of Muslim culture and eastern racial groups remains as a boundary within communities in the West. I aim to reference small groups of non-native Canadians living within Canada. I focus on drawing attention to these marginalized and struggling groups to use art as a connection for our shared experience. Through my personal experiences as a 2rd generation Muslim Canadian from Pakistan, and having long lasting effects from British rule/partition of India, these historical events have affected everything I see and everything I share.

How did you start your practice?

I started creating art at a very young age, however I established my Art practice within the first year of my degree, creating paintings of different mediums and different interdisciplinary work. Exploring different streams of work including Digital Illustration, Painting, Graphic Design, and delving into Relief and Sculpture.

Instagram: @duaaastudios_