Abraham Q

Artist Statement

Channelling the pain of our past as motivation create a better future, through a means of expression that may resonate with others who have had similar experiences.

Biography

I was sent to St. Johns Military School in Salina, Kansas. It was a diversion program set up by the government to give me the option to not go to juvenile hall in my hometown of Baltimore. The training and discipline we received in that school went far beyond the average military school, and it got shut down for abuse complaints 2 years after I graduated despite being ranked the top military school in the nation by AFI. I started the robotics team there, and the army wanted me to build drones for them when I graduated. I never went for that, being Pakistani. Some cadets went on to become Navy SEALs and drone pilots, while others became famous rappers and petty criminals. At age 16, I technically died there for 5 minutes and was revived. I moved down here to run a print shop up until Summer '22 when I became an artist full time. The one thing we all still share was the trauma that place gave us and it affecting us to this day. Many of my closest friends from that school have since died, not long after barely becoming grown men. Often due to their own actions, but none being suicides. I started painting to memorialize them, and to visualize trauma in the ways our minds deal with it.

Exhibition History (CV)