Saima is a Yorkshire based textile artist specialising in hand embroidery. Her richly illustrated embroideries allude to mythical universes full of pattern and play. Saima’s visual language is rooted in Punjabi embroideries known as Phulkaris, with a particular emphasis on figurative Phulkaris from the late 19th/early 20th century.
Her career as an artist began in 2018 when she expressed the experience of having a child with severe autism. This exploration took the form of a 2019 exhibition ‘Autism: This is Me’ at Kala Sangam, Bradford.
She continues to develop her practice through collaborative projects, bespoke commissions and freelance teaching projects. Examples of her embroidered work include collections for Unpolished Space, The Shop Floor Project, and Glassette. She has delivered online workshops for textileartist.org and Selvedge Magazine and recently created a public commission for Festival of Making. Her work was featured in Embroidery Magazine May/June 2023.
Saima has a BA Hons. in Contemporary Arts from Nottingham Trent University and a Masters in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. Saima previously worked in the Arts and Museums sector for nearly a decade, delivering Community Outreach programmes at Leicester Museums Service and then at Nottingham Contemporary.