MAHTAB HUSSAIN

Mahtab Hussain is a British artist whose work comments on cultural differences. His themes are developed through long-term and challenge prevailing concepts of multiculturalism. Hussain questions and explores his own sense of identity and belonging in Britain, essentially asking what it means to be a British Muslim today?

Hussain holds a BA in History of Art from Goldsmith’s College, London, specialising in Art and Photography (2002); an MA in Museum and Gallery Management from City University, London (2006), and has completed an MA in Photography at Nottingham Trent University in 2013.

His award winning series You Get Me?, focuses on young working class Asian men in contemporary Britain and was launched at Autograph ABP, London – curated by Mark Sealy OBE in 2017, and travelled to Impressions Gallery in Bradford and Gallery Oldham in Oldham, UK.

Going Back Home to Where I Came From, photographed in Kashmir and Pakistan explores ideas around homeland, loss, memory and the overview effect . The series was exhibited at New Art Gallery Walsall.

Honest With You, is a series about femininity, sisterhood, resistance and political defiance of British Muslim women, was featured on BBC Radio 4.

Most recently, Hussain in was invited to be a juror for the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, and is presently working on a new series, Muslims in America, produced by Chris Boot, with support from East Wing.

Hussain is the recipient of numerous commissions from; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; New Art Exchange, Nottingham; MAC Birmingham, Hayward Gallery, London, Multistory, West Bromwich, The Foundling Museum London, with support from Arts Council England, The British Council and the Arts Humanities Research Council.  He has published 4 monographs; You Get Me?(MACK books) , which received the Light Work Photobook Award for 2017. Going Back Home to Where I Came From,(Ikon Gallery), supported by Arts Council England and The British Council. The Quiet Town of Tipton,(Dewi Lewis Publishing) commissioned by Multistory and The Commonality of Strangers, (New Art Exchange Publishing) supported by Arts Council England.

Hussain’s work has been featured on BBC and published in multiple articles in the UK and abroad including The Guardian, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Independent, New York Times, Aperture Magazine to name just a few. He has been featured on British Television, in the BBC 4 documentary What Do Artists Do All Day? and was invited to be part of a series on BBC 4 Britain in Focus: A Photographic History with Eamonn McCabe to discuss the work of legendary photographer Bill Brandt.