Mohammad Tariq Habibi was forced to flee Afghanistan because of his art. Recognized in 2018 as one of the finest artists in Afghanistan, Habibi was threatened soon thereafter by the Taliban for his paintings, for teaching art to girls, and for displaying and selling his art in his country. These threats forced Habibi and his family into hiding and began the arduous process of escaping the country. As the son of a Master Artist and Art Instructor Habibi learned the skills of drawing and painting with brush and pallet knife at an early age. By his teen years he was instructing adult students in realism and impressionism, and over an 11-year period taught well over 1,000 students. He and his father, Ebrahim Habibi, started the first modern art school in his hometown of Herat, Afghanistan in 2004 and the internationally recognized Behzad Art Gallery in 2009. In 2023, he and his family waited eight months in Afghanistan to process a visa for Germany and another four months in Pakistan, where they waited for an appointment with the German Embassy. They were finally granted approval for resident visas from Germany in 2024. Today, Habibi has relaunched his career from that European country. “Watching my father work at art as a profession, I too developed a passion for painting with my art. In a way, I was looking for my lost half, the half that could calm me down and make my own thoughts and sufferings visible in colors on a white canvas. Today, I always try to send a message of peace and charity with my art, and work to depict society’s hidden pains as well as the beauty of a world gone by.” -- Mohammad Tariq Habibi Habibi has participated in numerous exhibitions, including: Joint exhibition of Tehran University, Iran, 2005Solo painting exhibition in Allameh Seljuqi Hall, in Herat, Afghanistan, 2010Solo painting exhibition in Mirak Gallery, Mashhad, Iran, 2014Group Art Exhibition of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 2018International Art Festival of Jaipur, India, 2018Group Exhibition to prevent violence against Afghan women, Hamburg, Germany, 2024Voices of Afghan Women Exhibition, Hamburg, Germany, 2024. Barlow Gallery is proud to show the work of Mohammad Tariq Habibi in our retail galleries and online. To shop for prints of Habibi's artwork in various sizes and materials, click HERE.