Salima Hashmi

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Salima Hashmi is a Pakistani painter who served for four years as the head of the National College of Arts. She is the daughter of one of Pakistan's most renowned poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and represented the first generation of modern artists in the country, who carried an artistic identity different from indigenous artists.

She is currently the Dean of the School of Visual Arts at the Beaconhouse National University. Her daughter and nephew also teach there. Salima is famous for her quick wit and ability to read and analyze artwork with effortless ease. She is a respected patron of young artists known to have the capacity to make or break a career. Formerly known as "Art-Shart", Rohtas-3 is the gallery set up by Salima Hashmi at her father's house in Model Town, where she currently lives with her family. Shoaib Hashmi, her husband, retired from a teaching position at Government College University, Lahore, and was also a popular co-star with Salima in comedy television shows in the early 1970s.

Salima Hashmi also authored a critically lauded book titled 'Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan' in 2001. In 2006, Salima Hashmi co-authored a book with Indian art historian Yashodhara Dalmia titled 'Memory, Metaphor, Mutations: Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan', published by Oxford University Press. Her latest work, a series of illustrations to accompany English translations of her father's poetry by her husband Shoaib Hashmi, is in process of publication.