tazeen qayyum

Tazeen Qayyum (She/Her) is a Pakistani-Canadian contemporary artist based in Oakville. Trained as a miniature painter of South Asian and Persian traditions, Qayyum continues to explore new materials and processes through drawing, installation, sculpture, video and performance. Repetition, rhythm, balance, and geometry are methodological devices that allow her to create visually complex artworks and offer viewers a multi-layered understanding of materials and techniques used. Drawing from complex issues of belonging and displacement within a socio-political context, her art is a way for her to navigate identity and beliefs living in the diaspora. 

Exhibiting nationally and internationally, Qayyum’s work is included in several private and public collections, some of which include the The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM); Welt Museum, Vienna, Austria; The Art Mill Museum, Doha, Qatar; TD Canada Trust Permanent Collection, Toronto; Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pengzhou, China; The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto; National Gallery of Amman, Jordan; and National Art Gallery, Nepal.   

Qayyum’s installations have also been featured in critical reviews in several publications, including in BlackFlash Magazine (2021) Canadian Art (2018), The Globe and Mail, Canada (2011 & 2015), and The New York Times (2009). She was the recipient of the Excellence in Art Award 2015 by the CCAI (Canadian Community Arts Initiative) and was nominated for the Jameel Prize (2013) and K.M. Hunter Award (2014). She has been awarded grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and UNESCO.  Qayyum received her BFA in Visual Arts from the National College of Arts Lahore, Pakistan. Along with her artistic practice, Qayyum teaches workshops in traditional miniature painting and works as the co-founder of Art Address, an interactive space for artistic discourse in Oakville. She currently serves as a member of the Arts Council at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, and previously sat on the Board of Directors at Oakville Galleries and the Advisory Board at Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga. 

For more information visit: www.tazeenqayyum.com
@tazeenqayyum