Hamad Butt: An Archive

4 Jun-7 Sep 2025

Overview

Hamad Butt was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962, and was raised in East London. He lived in London until his AIDS-related death in 1994, aged 32. He was a pioneering British South Asian artist who forged new ways of thinking about the relationship between art and science, illness, the body, and identity. He is best known for a series of austere compositions of steel, glass and toxic materials, shown in Gallery 1, and he was also a prolific producer of drawings, paintings, etchings, and writings.

This display is constructed around an informative and moving video interview between the artist and his brother Jamal Butt, recorded six months before his untimely death. It gives context to Butt’s practice as an artist, bringing together sketches, plans and archival materials relating to his key works, alongside theoretical and personal writings. It showcases his wide-ranging cultural influences, from Bollywood to Doctor Who, demonstrates his artistic processes, and considers the legacy of an artist whose life was cut drastically short.