Belonging And Its Costs

I make paintings about belonging: who feels at home in the world, and who is still searching. I was born into a tight-knit, diasporic Muslim community shaped by a thousand years of continuous migration. My own life has led me through four countries, a geo-politically charged cross-cultural marriage, and the raising of a nonbinary child. This lived history drives my ongoing inquiry into belonging and its cost.

Process And Influences

Luminous, biomorphic globes recur across my paintings, defiantly rooting in unlikely places. I work in mixed media — building layers of paint, collage, gold leaf — then scraping back and excavating until something essential emerges. Like the earthquake-prone land beneath my studio, my canvases crack and rebuild. Things fracture before they reform...sometimes with unexpected tendrils sprouting from the scar tissue. I paint as an act of healing: for myself and for anyone who has ever found themselves on the outside looking in.

I came to the USA to pursue a Stanford BA, followed by a Kellogg MBA and then spent fifteen years inside iconic American brands — Coca-Cola, Clorox, Kingsford, Hidden Valley, Nike — mastering how visual storytelling shapes identity and culture at scale. I carry that fluency into every mark I make in the studio. 

My influences include Islamic geometric abstractions, Indus Valley cosmic symbols, Madhubani folk paintings, and Sufi mystic poetry, all of it circling the same question: what does it mean to belong. I am also inspired by the work of Hilma af Klint, S.H. Raza, Beatriz Milhazes, and Virginia Jaramillo. My paintings are held in private collections, and have also been exhibited in the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and internationally in Hong Kong and Beijing. 

Art And Advocacy

I bring the same conviction to my canvases that I bring to my community. I serve on the boards of the Indian American Artists Association, Olive Hyde Art Guild, and PFLAG National, and am a strategic advisor to the boards of Narika and Desi Rainbow Parents. I have been invited to speak on the future of creativity on various podcasts, at Stanford University, and at Mastercard. My art and advocacy have also taken me to the White House as a guest of the president, and the United Nations in Geneva.

Let's Connect: Instagram @charmainehussain | charmainehussain.com

"From a place that is placeless, I trace that which is traceless" - Rumi