The tiger appears several times in Ali Kazim’s current exhibition at Cristea Roberts, most notably in circus scenes.

As a teenager, Kazim worked as an apprentice with a cinema board painter, which included painting signboards for the circus.

The pictured works also bring to mind the character Shere Khan from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and took months to complete. Kazim’s watercolour process is very slow. Following an initial drawing, he applies diluted washes of different colours to selected areas of the painting, which is then washed in shallow water so that the pigment becomes fixed. He repeats this process multiple times in a repetitive and attentive act.

Ali Kazim: Alphabets is currently on view at Cristea Roberts in London until 3 October 2026.

Circus ka Sher II, 2026
Watercolour pigments on paper
87.8 × 121 cm — 34 5/8 × 47 5/8 inches (framed)

Circus ka Sher I, 2026
Watercolour pigments on paper
68 × 106.6 cm — 26 3/4 × 42 inches (framed)