Sabir Ali was born in Burdwan in 10TH December 1983 and was educated in Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University,Santiniketan where he achieved BFA degree in Painting 2004 and MFA in Painting 2006. He has participated in many group shows and is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshield Award. Sabir Ali’s works revolve around the so called ‘war of the worlds’, where he articulates the complex relationship between the Islamic community and other communities. Many of his works are marked by a deep meditation on death and erasure, something which his subjects are constantly confronted with. He brings together multiple spaces over his canvas surface, often populated with images of the past and present, real or mediated, which together invoke a strong sense of irony and negotiation. However, he chooses to move beyond the language of photorealism to articulate a politically charged content, exploring the possibilities within the realm of poetic imagination.

The sense of the poetry in his works is neither surreal in nature, nor is it limited to formal experimentation. It is rather recognized and experienced from a communal location, which has its roots in the collective imagination of the universal world , something that is closer to the world of music, notably the Sufi Qawalis.

Sabir lives and works in Santiniketan.