WAQAS WAJAHAT built his reputation within the art world through an emphasis on scholarship, connoisseurship, and philanthropy. His collecting practice remains committed to those three principles. After studying at the University of Pennsylvania and the Barnes Foundation, he spent his early years working on modern and contemporary exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Over the years, has initiated, funded, and helped produce numerous museum exhibitions, including critical surveys and retrospectives on Milton Avery, Herbert Ferber, Neil Jenney, Jasper Johns, Alexis Rockman, Richard Pousette-Dart, James Prosek, Sean Scully, David Smith, 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 Malta Contemporary (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 works from Indian Mughal and Rajput periods.