Nargis Naqvi | Skating in Diriyyah

Nargis Naqvi is a Saudi Canadian artist with a South Asian ethnicity. She grew up in Saudi Arabia, got her education in the United States in Business, Interior Design and Photography and moved to Canada with her husband and one child in 1999. Her passion for the arts started in grade school and her father indulged her with the large canvases and oil paints. Her focus is usually the life of women and often you’d see a clay pot or two in her paintings. The clay pot depicts ‘life’ as it carries water. She loves creating flowers with textures and often spins her own imagination onto them. She has exhibited in over 25 exhibitions, has had one solo exhibition. She has two public art pieces: ‘Humanity First’ on a traffic box in Milton ON and a 15 foot banner for Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto representing Muslims.

As a young girl with a free spirit, I roamed the streets of Diriyyah compound in Riyadh, holding on to my skateboard and riding on another, feeling the freedom of youth. The restrictions found in Riyadh Saudi Arabia at the time did not limit what I could do, nor did anyone else try to limit me. This is a painting to pay tribute to the freedom and fun of youth and their ability to achieve anything they dream about if they desire.