Born in Pakistan in 1968, Naiza Khan trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, and the Wimbledon College of Art, London. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally, including at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2016), the Colombo Art Biennale (2016) and the Shanghai Biennale (2012), as well as in exhibitions, such as Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Asia Society, New York, USA (2009); Art Decoding Violence, XV Biennale Donna, Ferrara, Italy (2012); Desperately Seeking Paradise, Art Dubai, UAE (2008); Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain (2010); and the Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt (2010).

The artist was  selected for Pakistan's inaugural national pavilion in the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. She was also selected  for residencies at Gasworks, London, UK, and at the Rybon Art Center, Tehran, Iran. As a founding member and long-time coordinator of the Vasl Artists’ Collective in Karachi, Khan has worked to foster art in the city, and participated in a series of innovative art projects in partnership with other workshops in the region, such as the Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi, India; the Britto Arts Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Sutra Art Foundation, Kathmandu, Nepal; and the Theertha International Artists Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka. In addition, she has curated three exhibitions of Pakistani contemporary art, including The Rising Tide: New Directions in Art from Pakistan, 1990–2010 at the Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi.

In 2013, Khan had her first major retrospective at an American institution: Karachi Elegies at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. The same year, she received the Prince Claus Award presented by the Dutch Prince Claus Fund in recognition of her exceptional work and initiatives in the fields of art and culture.