Biography of Sanki King

Born in Jeddah in 1990 & growing up in Karachi, Sanki got inspired by the American graffiti & hip-hop culture of the 80’s & 90’s through the internet and at home he was inspired by his father, who spoke 19 languages & regularly wrote the Qur’an by hand which sparked his interest in learning different languages & traditional Arabic & Persian calligraphy. At 15, he further delved into rapping, DJing, b-boying, parkour & along with graffiti in several languages, experimented with portraiture, sneaker art, custom clothing & stencil art; later developing a strong practice in Calligraffiti. Since early 2010, he has produced monumental graffiti & calligraffiti murals around Pakistan, works in 8 languages & in his own hieroglyphic writing system, associating elements of traditional calligraphy with the techniques of street art.
Sanki started exhibiting his work in galleries in 2016 with a sold-out solo show at Sanat Gallery, Karachi: he was a major part of the first Karachi Biennale in 2017 & an Abraaj Art Prize 2017 nominee. King is currently exhibiting his work “Here I Am” at the ongoing “Abstraction & Calligraphy” exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi, which is one of the two biggest installations in the exhibition. Sanki is also the youngest artist in the exhibition; first Pakistani artist in history to be exhibiting at the Louvre Abu Dhabi and one of the youngest Pakistani artists in the world to be doing a museum show.