Abeer Kayani
Abeer Kayani is an emerging, award-winning Textile designer-maker. She takes inspiration from her cultural roots in Kashmir, Pakistan where she grew up surrounded by luscious craft, colour and architecture. She graduated from University for the Creative Arts Farnham specialising in hand printed textiles.
Abeer works in a highly experimental way using hand dyeing and screen-printing techniques as well as designing digitally. She was presented the ‘Making It 2021 Award’ by Craft Festival for her exceptional and unique collection of silks exhibited with Devon Guild of Craftsmen. She has received recognition from Society of Dyers and Colourists for quality craftmanship and extraordinary use of colour.
She explores themes of belonging, identity and tangibility of emotion through her intricate textile artworks. Her patterns are inspired by structures in small objects which travelled with Abeer from Pakistan. These objects are small vessels, binding time and memory together. Abeer enjoys working on meaningful projects that bring out stories expressing the relationships humans form with places and objects.
Since graduating Abeer has completed an Artist Residency at Watts Gallery, been a guest speaker at the Westminster Media Forum 2019 for Arts Council England and interviewed by BBC South. She has exhibited with prestigious galleries and organisations such as Southampton City Art Gallery, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Solent Showcase Gallery, New Ashgate Gallery, Making Matters collective as well as Digital Craft Festival. She is a member Design Nation, Crafts Council Directory, Find a Maker, CHAOS Network and Anytime Artisan. Based in Southampton and currently working towards growing her practice, she continues to develop her networks and new relationships.
A Gaze Within 2021
Abeer Kayani
Textile / silk
This artwork features patterns inspired by principles of Islamic art which reached a zenith during the golden age of Islam. These patterns spread far and wide through the voyages of Muslim travellers, scholars and artisans across the globe including Marrakech, Granada, Istanbul and Agra.
Starting from a circle, creating lines, divisions, and revealing distinctive shapes, the artist uses an underlying grid to discover unique patterns drawn from the construction. She uses translucency and colour as a means to express a connection to her Muslim heritage, referencing the beauty of stained-glass windows which can be found in mosques all across the world, including Southampton.
A Gaze Within