Exploring Dualities: The Art of Lubna Chowdhary

This September, Goodwood Art Foundation welcomes artist Lubna Chowdhary in conversation with curator Ann Gallagher – an exciting opportunity to hear from one of the most exciting multimedia artists working today.  

Born in Tanzania to Pakistani parents and raised in the UK, Chowdhary’s practice is rooted in navigating dualities: East and West, art and craft, ornament and restraint. She describes her creative process as a form of “code-switching” between cultures - an approach that reflects her diasporic experience and global perspective. 

Working at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, and craft, Chowdhary is best known for her ceramic works, including the Marker series on display at Goodwood Art Foundation. 

Lubna Chowdhary, Markers (2023–2025) at Goodwood Art Foundation. Photo by Lucy Dawkins. 

In these works, industrially produced tiles become a canvas for bold, intuitive experiments with colour and geometry. Using waterjet-cut tiles and hand-applied glazes, she layers colour through a process she describes as “working blind with colour” - allowing each stage of firing to guide the composition rather than following a fixed design. 

From Sculpture to Public Art 

While Chowdhary began her career making three-dimensional sculptural works, she shifted towards tiles as a way of making her art more accessible, as they can be more easily integrated into a public setting.  

For more than two decades, she has created large-scale public artworks across the UK, integrating her pieces into architectural spaces for both public and private projects. She has always loved the idea of public artwork, because it’s for everyone. 

Lubna Chowdhary, Past Lives and Future Tools (2021). Image via Great Ormond Street Hospital. 

This democratic philosophy underpins major commissions such as Past Lives and Future Tools at the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Sight and Sound Centre. Here, Chowdhary collaborated with patients and staff to create bespoke works for the new medical building. Her multisensory, interactive pieces were inspired by workshops with children - many under the age of four and with hearing or vision impairments - ensuring the final designs were both inclusive and joyful. 

Interpreting Architecture and Movement 

Lubna Chowdhary, Interstice (2021). Photograph by Charles Hosea 

Chowdhary’s interest in urban environments is evident in Interstice (2021), a commission for 100 Liverpool Street. Installed in a tunnel linking Liverpool Street Station to Broadgate Circus, the work was conceived as a response to the railway history of the site. 

The piece captures the ‘flickering’ sensation of looking out of a train window - a visual rhythm, caused by moving at speed, that was once so unfamiliar that early railway passengers feared it might damage their eyes. For Chowdhary, train journeys offer a unique lens on industrial landscapes and hidden urban vistas. When you travel by train, you see the backs of buildings, power stations, farmland - you experience the city in a different way. 

Lubna Chowdhary, Interstice (2021). Photograph by Charles Hosea 

Her fascination with industrial architecture stems from her upbringing in Rochdale, a textile town in Greater Manchester, where she was surrounded by industry. Later, moving to London in 1989, she witnessed another architectural shift as Canary Wharf transformed the city’s skyline. These experiences inform her ongoing dialogue between craft traditions and modernity, a tension she resolves through innovative techniques like waterjet cutting and modular tile systems. 

Tiles as a Modern Language 

Lubna Chowdhary, Lantern Tower (2007). 

For Chowdhary, tiles are more than a surface - they are a modular language that enables her to explore scale, colour, and composition. By combining small, individually crafted elements, she creates works that function collectively, telling stories that a single piece could not. 

Lubna Chowdhary, Lantern Tower (2007). 

Her 2007 commission Lantern Tower in Slough exemplifies this approach. Positioned at a major commuter hub, the work is seen by millions of people each week, embodying Chowdhary’s belief in art as a public good. 

Lubna Chowdhary at Goodwood Art Foundation 

Lubna Chowdhary’s work invites us to consider how art can shape public spaces, bridge cultural histories, and bring beauty into everyday life. 

On 25 September 2025, Chowdhary will share insights into her creative process, her philosophy of democratic art, and the inspirations behind her most significant projects.