Why did you choose to study both advertising and sculpture? I studied advertising to get into the field of advertising, and I studied sculpture to get into the field of art. I started off as a graphic designer, but always loved storytelling in advertising, particularly those long European spots from the early 2000s. When I decided to move from design to advertising, it made sense to build an advertising portfolio, which I did at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. A decade later, storytelling became more about self-expression, beyond product messaging. I fell in love with art, particularly artists like Banksy, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst and Auguste Rodin, to name a few.

I took to sculpture almost immediately. The three-dimensional form and material spoke to me more than paintings did. I attended the Art Students League of New York, where I was lucky to have Oscar Garcia as a teacher and mentor. I later learned 3-D software tools like Cinema 4D and ZBrush and moved my sculpture practice to the computer, where it lives today. I make both ads and art on my laptop.

How did you begin working at Merkley+Partners? I was a creative director at TBWA\RAAD in Dubai. After three years of working on the Nissan client, it was time to move on. The economy was showing early signs of change, and I wanted to come back to New York City. Merkley+Partners was on my radar because of its great work with Mercedes-Benz. When I visited Merkley, it felt like a perfect fit, both culturally and workwise. It immediately felt like family, and has ever since. The fact that I stayed for four years, left for three years to pursue art, and then came back is a testament to that.

What was your riskiest professional decision? Quitting my agency job at Merkley+Partners to become a full-time artist with no plan. After four years, I had a lot of art ideas I was desperate to bring to life. Although I was the only breadwinner of our family, who were living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, my wife was amazingly supportive of me quitting to work on art full-time, and living off our savings. Without her belief in me, I’d be nowhere.

In hindsight, it was a financially terrible idea, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Those three years of setting up the foundation of my art practice were priceless. I worked on eighteen different projects, ranging from installations to rugs to sculptures to paintings. It gave me the opportunity to participate in multiple group art shows, which is how you traditionally get your feet wet in the art world. When the money ran out, Andy Hirsch, the chief creative officer at Merkley, took me back, with an understanding that I can work on my art practice while being able to pay my bills. Today, I balance both. I’ve been lucky to have supportive mentors and an amazing life partner, without whom pursuing my dreams would have been almost impossible.

How do you balance personal and commercial work? Discipline and deadlines. I have learned to say no to certain personal projects because they’ll overwhelm everything else. My advertising hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and my art hours are 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., as well as Saturdays. Advertising and art are very different. They both require concept, craft and heart, but they are two beasts serving two different masters. In one case, the master is a sensible, paying client, and in the other, it’s your soul, which never sticks to a brief, budget or timeline.

What inspired your exhibition SpaceMosque? SpaceMosque is a parafictional mystical sci-fi themed narrative in which a mysterious spacecraft resembling a hovering mosque appears and every human on Earth is granted one prayer every 24 hours. The narrative explores greed and morality at war when prayer becomes the de facto global currency. The work asks us to reflect on what it is we pray for and to what end.

The idea for SpaceMosque came about in late 2017, when a number of influences fused in my head, from Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End to Hiroshi Sugimoto’s exhibition Lost Human Genetic Archive to Islamic mythological stories like “Isra and Mi’raj: The Night Journey” to the Museum of Humanity in Halo 3 . I later found Damien Hirst’s documentary Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable to be fascinating, and it falls into the same parafictional genre that SpaceMosque occupies. Current TV shows like The Man in the High Castle and Black Mirror also served as inspiration. I used lots of media touchpoints for the SpaceMosque experience, so advertising also had a huge influence on this project.

How did you come up with the term “sci-fi Sufism,” and how has it impacted your creative thinking? Since the beginning of time, man has stared into outer space, imagining the divine. Spirituality is something I’ve always been fascinated by. I’m not very practicing in the prescribed Sunni Muslim sense, with which I was raised, but I do find comfort in Sufism, the mystical inward dimensions of Islam. It is more about self-understanding, which then leads to the understanding of the divine. Sufism is all about finding God within yourself through love. If God is love, the deeper you go into self-actualization, the closer you get to the all-knowing. The infinity of space and infinity of love are therefore connected. The mysteries of outer space and the entity that created it are equally abstract to us, and both require similar journeys of thought.

These concepts do not really apply to my day-to-day creative problem-solving for clients. But, it’s worked wonders for me personally; it has impacted my attitude as a human being. Having a positive attitude about work is supremely important. I used to feel creatively inadequate because I hadn’t won certain awards, and I used to beat myself up about it. When I discovered art, I shed all that and found peace. And eventually, the awards did come. But, I’ll be honest, they don’t have the same significance as they used to. It’s funny how that works.

What trends in advertising are you most interested in? I get most excited when I see technology make lives better. Social impact work has become a lot savvier too, which is needed more than ever today. The really good ideas are more art than ads, so much so that I can’t tell the difference, like Q, the genderless voice for Copenhagen Pride. Another smart work is VMLY&R’s Keeping Fortnite Fresh social integration project for Wendy’s. Wavio’s See Sound project also uses technology for good in a brilliant way. I also enjoy diving into new platforms. Two years ago, we were all about Snapchat, and today it’s Tik Tok. Tomorrow, it’ll be something else, and that’s great. It’s more about adapting ideas to work on different platforms than it is about new ideas.

Which artists or creatives do you most admire? Damien Hirst because of his piece The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. Olafur Eliasson because of what he does with light. Speaking of light, James Turrell! Mona Hatoum moves my immigrant soul. So does Hank Willis Thomas. I’m jealous of Faig Ahmed for his woven works. I’m jealous of Ed Ruscha’s word paintings. Beeple’s Everydays project tremendously inspires me to improve my craft. Anthony Gormley’s sculptures make me want to bow down. Banksy because he’s so clever.

Among advertising creatives, I admire my friend and sometimes collaborator Ali Rez of Impact BBDO. He put Pakistan on the map for creativity. Across the border, Piyush Pandey at Ogilvy India. Stateside, I've always admired Roger Baran and Sam Luchini for their work on the Dreams of Dalí VR experience at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Tom Miller is a super smart and funny writer. And finally, I admire my current copywriting partner Eddie Van Bloem for being the most collaborative, funniest and kindest creative soul I've ever worked with.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your career? Jerry Saltz didn’t personally give me this advice, but it has stuck with me: “Make an enemy of envy.” And here’s one I follow: Learn something new every day.