Call for Proposals: Faculty Spotlight Exhibitions at the IAS
May 29, 2025UC Santa Cruz faculty across the divisions are invited to submit a proposal for an exhibition of their artwork at the Institute...
Institute of the Arts and Sciences
100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, CA
P (831) 502-7252
Email ias@ucsc.edu
April 2 - August 15, 2027
12 - 5 p.m. Wednesday - Sunday
(Closed Monday and Tuesday)
Through the language of architecture and letters they exchange, architect and artist Sofia Karim explores the stories of women in California prisons. An Architecture of Disappearance is a continuation of Karim’s 7-year enquiry into architecture as a language of struggle and resistance, and the hidden worlds of prisoners she works with, whose lives intertwine with her own.
About the Artist:
Sofia Karim has practiced architecture for over twenty years at studios including Norman Foster, London and Peter Eisenman, New York. Her practice combines architecture, visual art, and activism. The incarceration of her uncle (photographer and activist Shahidul Alam) led to the development of her theories on an ‘Architecture of Disappearance.’ and her explorations of architecture as a language of struggle and resistance. Her activism focuses on human rights across Bangladesh and India, where she campaigns for the release of imprisoned artists and political prisoners. She is the founder of Turbine Bagh, a joint artists’ movement against fascism and authoritarianism and platform for political art and activism.
She was a finalist for the Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics, in 2021. She has exhibited at galleries and museums including Tate Modern, London; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Rubin Museum of Art, New York; Wrightwood 659, Chicago; and as part of Documenta 15, Steidl/ Kunsthaus Göttingen. Her work has been presented at Harvard University and Cambridge University, and featured in publications including The Observer, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Architectural Review, The Art Newspaper, and the British Journal of Photography. She has appeared on BBC World News, Channel 4 News, Al Jazeera, and Sky News. She lectures on architecture and is a visiting critic at the Westminster School of Architecture.
