Queer Creators Collection: Introducing Mina Manzar

Mina Manzar is a New York City and Karachi-based artist who creates sapphic and cultural illustrations through colored pencil sketches and digital design. In her art, she bridges themes of sexuality, sensuality, romance, and politics as a queer creator with one foot in America and the other in Karachi, Pakistan. 

Mina always knew she wanted to be an artist. She recalled answering the dreaded question, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” with an eager, “Artist!” When living in New York City, she watched people painting the streets in Central Park and knew she wanted to be a creator. Despite the pressures of pursuing a more traditional career path, she was committed to illustration. “In sixth grade, I sat down and took out my colored pencils and started drawing all these girls,” Mina told GO. “I was like, ‘I’m going to learn how to do this, I’m going to draw pretty girls, or learn how to draw figures, and learn how to draw faces.’ I don’t even know where that idea came from, but ever since I was a kid, I was like, ‘I’m going to be an artist.’” 

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A large part of Mina’s inspiration for creating sapphic art was because she “didn’t see that at all growing up, especially when [she] was living in Pakistan.” Her work became particularly important in high school, when she created a piece that displayed two women with hair braided into knots for her GCSE Art Exam. Red nooses tied the braids together to symbolize the red string of fate, and to represent the danger of existing as a woman in love with another woman in Pakistan. After facing criticism in a larger class discussion of her piece, she felt even more inclined to keep unapologetically illustrating work that pushes cultural boundaries and creates visibility for queer people living in repressive societies. 

“Pride, 2019” is a piece that Mina created in 2019 for her senior portfolio at the School of Visual Arts. The illustration was guided by the consistent and rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Mina knew that a piece that displayed two women, one of Pakistani descent and one of Indian descent, would create an important discourse. She told GO this piece was informed by her experience with making Indian friends in college amidst rising conflict in their respective countries. As an international student, she found a home in her Indian friends and felt that bond to be a juxtaposition to the political relationship between India and Pakistan. Mina was further inspired by a picture of two men at pride holding the Indian and Pakistani flags and wanted to emulate their unity through illustration.“Pride, 2019”, along with her other work, was inspired by her environment and the political climate around her.

“Khwaja Sira” (2019) is another piece that Mina created for her senior portfolio. The piece highlighted the transgender community in Pakistan, also known as the “Kwaja Sira” community. This illustration represents the ostracization of the Kwaja Sira community and sheds light on the violence they face despite having been a normal and important part of Pakistani society for centuries. She notes that after colonization, the community faced even more repression and has since been shunned from and ignored by society. The piece was meant to be an ode to the Kwaja Sira community and to bring awareness to the adversities they face. Mina told GO, “These pieces were like wake-up calls. I was trying to do a wake-up call. I don’t know if it worked, hopefully for even one person it did.”

“Secret” (2023) is a piece that Mina commissioned for her first-ever Patreon subscriber who had been a supporter of her work for years. Her piece was inspired by Raveena Aurora, a singer and songwriter who melds R&B and her own Indian heritage into her music. Mina notes that music informs her creative process by giving her ideas and visuals. 

For more of Mina’s one-of-a-kind sapphic and eccentric illustrations, visit her website, YouTube channel, or Instagram @iillu.mina.ti.