Shumaiya Khan
Shumaiya Khan’s art pulses with the rhythms of body and nature, tracing time, ritual, and transformation.
“My work is visceral. It draws on the physical body, but it’s also a spiritual process, a way of working things out.”
– Shumaiya Khan
Shumaiya Khan’s work draws on ancient feminine mythologies, Jungian archetypes, and Abrahamic origin stories, enacting rather than illustrating. Surfaces recall flesh, lava, forest, and bone. Forms appear to grow or erode, familiar yet resistant to precise placement.
Khan’s works on paper carry the same corporeal intensity and alchemical layering, surfaces that gather, resist, and breathe. They navigate between material and metaphysical realms, between abstraction and memory, retaining an otherworldly presence that invites direct, tactile, and contemplative engagement.
What emerges is a raw encounter with the personal, environmental, and cosmic forces shaping her ongoing exploration of form and figure in relation to the world.
“I rarely start at the bottom. I’m always coming down from a height. Which is interesting, because anyone who knows the tale of Inanna knows she descends into the underworld.”
– Shumaiya Khan
“In a Judeo-Christian society, we hear a lot about the subjugation of women. But if you go further back, especially across parts of Asia, women were seen, valued, and held differently.”
– Shumaiya Khan
About the Artist
Shumaiya Khan, born 1990 in the UK, is a London-based painter, sculptor, and installation artist. She holds an MA in Fine Art from City and Guilds of London Art School (2025) and a BA (Hons) in Design from Goldsmiths, University of London (2013).
Working with oil, salt, ceramic, and textile, she translates elemental and spiritual forces into paintings, sculptures, and installations whose surfaces accumulate, erode, and breathe. Her work was most recently shown at London Art Fair with Zarastro Art in January 2026.
Artworks
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.10 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.11 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.12 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.2 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.3 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.5 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.6 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.7 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.8 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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Shumaiya Khan Twelve Mirrors… No.9 (2025)
Oil, salt and charcoal on card(h) 42 x (w) 29.7 cm
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