My creative practice explores how we communicate and connect with one another, driven by an internal exploration of my own emotional and physical boundaries in relation to my identity and my life-long invisible health condition. I always start with informal conversations, along with initial drawings, mark-making, and creative writing.
I tend to develop a body of work in collaboration with other artists, curators, and writers. In the past, I’ve set up live, durational situations intended to disrupt and displace our experience of what we’re observing within an exhibition setting, treating exhibition-making as a medium itself. These projects (gallery, off-site and online) involve experimentation with performance, participation, and intervention, often blending drawing, text, spoken word, sound, and video into collaborative live performances and exhibitions.
Recently, my practice is focused on my lived experiences around identity, belonging, isolation, ageing, and on grief and grieving. My research is centered on self-compassion—exploring self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness in relation to mental health and wellbeing. This shift has guided me to use creativity as a form of self-care and healing.
Compassionate Mindfulness and Resilience Course attendee (4 weeks) - Angela Bhandari - Love Compassion
2023 - The Quest Programme - attended a 3 day psycho-educational and experiential process that allows participants to create a life they wholeheartedly love, London. Looking at Shame, Compensating for Shame and Cultivating your Authenticity.
2014 - MA in Fine Art , School Of Art, Birmingham City University.
2009 - BA Visual Arts, Birmingham City University.
2006 - Foundation in Art & Design, Matthew Boulton College, Birmingham.
Selected Exhibitions, Projects & Residencies
2025
Frames of Discovery: An Evening of Art and Science, group show at Centrala, Birmingham, UK.
When Art Meets Science: Exploring Art-Science Collaboration (webinar) - The 2024-2025 SMQB/N-CODE artists in residence will take part in an online webinar discussing their experiences of the collaborations with scientists and about the intriguing links between art & science more generally.
2024
Co-facilitated a 1 day workshop titled ‘depression and brain networks - a cognitive approach.’ as part of the SMQB residency with Dr Maria Dauvermann from University of Birmingham.
Lead Facilitator for a 1 day workshop titled ‘creativity as self-care - drawing approaches.’ for SMQB residency.
TPMW Micro residency A3 Projects - Led by Simon Poulter, this intensive artist-lab is a mac birmingham opportunity, delivered in partnership with The New Art Gallery Walsall and Turning Point West Midlands.
Act 1: Zombie Poverty, Article Gallery, The School Of Art Birmingham (a live experimental collaborative curatorial project).
“Brand” New Generation?, The Drum, Birmingham (panel discussion for Kalaboration is a partnership project between The Drum Arts Centre, School of Art Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) Birmingham City University and RoguePlay Theatre.)
Castling, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012 (Hanson Street Studios, Glasgow - ‘Castling’ was a collaborative project between artists in Birmingham and Glasgow initiated by Extra Special People for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012. The project took the form of a billboard exchange. Referencing the exterior billboard structure at Eastside Projects in Birmingham, two additional billboards were constructed in the Hanson Street Studios Project Space.)
Proposal 2, Works Gallery, Birmingham (a collaborative curatorial project produced with invited artist Oscar Cass-Darweish).
Allotment Project, mac Birmingham (collaborative curatorial project).
2011
Blood Sweat and Tears, Folkestone Triennial Fringe, Folkestone.
British Summertime 2, residency programme, New Art Gallery Walsall & Mac Birmingham.
2010
MILK, first solo-show for SHOUT Festival, Lombard Method, Birmingham. (Mulit-media installation responding to the feature film Milk (2008) and the story of the titular Harvey Milk, an American activist who fought for gay rights and became California’s first openly gay elected official.
Publications
2018
The Last Known Pose, Essays and Reflections on the Work of Qasim Riza Shaheen - Publisher. Cornerhouse Publications; Publication date. 31 Oct. 2018 (A collection of written and visual responses to the works of British artist, Qasim Riza Shaheen. Essays, reflections and conversations, by eminent scholars, curators, artists and collaborators, consider the multiple aspects and the experience of his works.)
2015
New Art West Midlands 2015, Publication: Birmingham Museums Trust; Publication Date 31 Jan. 2015.
Five Years on, Five years on, independent curator Indra Khanna brings together a collection of recent works by six New Art West Midlands alumni, one from each of the participating art colleges. The exhibition and this accompanying free newspaper considers what happened next in their careers, giving a valuable update on both their work and, more broadly, their journey after art school.
