Hanif Kureshi

A multidisciplinary artist and designer, Hanif Kureshi’s practice explored the intersection of art, typography, and street culture. Deeply committed to making art accessible to wider audiences, he absorbed the language of the streets into his work – transforming everyday signs, phrases, and visual codes into compositions that balanced irony, beauty, and social reflection. Often combining multiple media within a single piece, his works operated as acts of both memory-making and cultural preservation.

Hanif’s ongoing HandPaintedType Project sought to document and revive India’s vernacular street typography—a distinctive and rapidly vanishing aspect of local visual culture. Through this and his broader practice, he positioned Indian scripts as dynamic, living forms capable of contemporary expression and abstraction.

As Co-Founder and Artistic Director of St+art India Foundation, Hanif played a pivotal role in transforming the Indian urban landscape through large-scale murals, public art interventions, and the creation of art districts across cities. His vision brought emerging artists into the streets and redefined how public art engages with communities.

In parallel, he co-founded Guerrilla Art & Design, XXL Collective, and Gallery XXL, through which he expanded his creative explorations into design, curation, and spatial experimentation.