Jovita Alvares
Education
- Master of Fine Art, School of Art and Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago (August 2022–May 2024)
- Bachelor of Fine Art, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi (January 2013–December 2016)
Biography
Jovita Alvares has been Assistant Professor of Communication and Design at Habib University since January 2025. She joined Habib immediately after a brief term as Lecturer at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi (August–December 2024), and after completing her M.F.A. as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (2022–2024).
Her artistic practice is research-driven, exploring the intersections of archives, counter-archives, sentimentality, nostalgia, and hauntology, particularly in South Asian contexts, and spans installation, video, textile, and photo-based media. Since her 2024 graduation, she has continued to exhibit internationally, including at Columboscope 2026 in Colombo, Serendipity Arts Festival 2025 in Goa, and a 2025 solo exhibition at Canvas Gallery, Karachi.
Selected Recent Exhibitions
- Solo: “Goa last night i dreamed i touched you… today it dissipates,” Canvas Gallery, Karachi, 2025
- Group: Columboscope 2026, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Group: “Not a Shore, Neither a Ship, but the Sea Itself,” Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, India, 2025
- Group: “Autopoiesis: A Song of Resuscitation,” Artshilla Goa, India, 2025
- Group: “The Shape of Home,” The Plan, Chicago, 2025
- Solo: “who do I pray to?” / “Who am I Meant to Pray to,” School of Art and Art History, UIC, Chicago, 2024
Selected Awards
- Lobby Competition Winner, Gallery 400, UIC (2024)
- USEFP Fulbright Scholar, MFA Cohort 2022–2024
- UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute for South Asian Arts Scholarship, Beaconhouse National University (2021)
- Merit Scholarship, Beaconhouse National University (2021)
- Imran Mir Art Prize (2017)
Residencies
- Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin, Germany (2024)
- 4th Sanat Residency, Sanat Initiative, Karachi (2017)
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