WAQAS WAJAHAT built his reputation within the art world through an emphasis on connoisseurship, scholarship, and philanthropy. After studying at the University of Pennsylvania and the Barnes Foundation, he gained curatorial experience and expertise in post-war and contemporary art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  

Recognizing the ever-changing requirements of artists’ legacies and the ambitions of their estates and foundations, Waqas was instrumental in developing relationships between the Estate of David Smith and Hauser & Wirth, as well as the Milton Avery Trust and Victoria Miro in London and Xavier Hufkens in Brussels. He has initiated and helped produce numerous museum exhibitions, including critical surveys and retrospectives on Milton Avery, Herbert Ferber, Neil Jenney, Alexis Rockman, Richard Pousette-Dart, James Prosek, Sean Scully, Donald Sultan, and John Walker.  

Waqas is deeply committed to supporting non-profit art institutions, notably the Barnes Foundation, the Morris Museum, and the Norton Museum of Art. He is the founding chair of the International Committee at the Malta Contemporary Museum (MICAS) and serves as an ambassador for the Goodwood Art Foundation. Waqas is a longtime trustee at the Drawing Center in New York City and sits on advisory and acquisition committees at the Lowe Art Museum, the Barnes Foundation, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the National Gallery’s Collectors Committee. 

His focus in collecting remains within post-war and contemporary art, with an emphasis on women artists and paintings on paper from Indian Mughal and Rajput periods.