Exhibitions and projects
*Denotes publication
Solo exhibitions
2021
Khadi. Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, British Textile Biennial 2021 ➣
2019
Tesserae. Shapes that Tessellate. A print portfolio. Hospital Club, London ➣
2012
Shag. Aedas Presents* curated by Charlie Levine Birmingham, UK
2000
A Picture of Health. A 10ft artist’s book. New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK
1999
Pantheon. Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
A Shrine of our Times. Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
Group exhibitions
2027
Assassins and Lovers. Cartwright Hall Bradford 20 June 2026 – 31 December 2027 ➣
2026
Handle with Care. Wolverhampton Art Gallery 17 Jan – 19 August 2026 ➣
2025
Thread the Loom. Ikon Gallery Birmingham 25 June – 7 September 2025 ➣
2024
Entangled Pasts, 1768-now*. Royal Academy of Arts London 3 February – 28 April 2024 ➣
2023
History in the Making. Stories of Materials and Makers 2000BC to now. Compton Verney Art Gallery and Museum Warwick 21 Oct 2023 – 11 February 2024 ➣
New Positions. Acquisitions to the Crafts Council Collection. Crafts Council Gallery London 15 – 30 June 2023 ➣
2022
Cotton: labour, land and body. Crafts Council Gallery London 21 September 2022 – 5 March 2023 ➣
Exchanges. Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester. Recent additions to the Collection ➣
2021
Maker’s Eye, Crafts Council, London Click
The Travelling World is Not Arriving*. ReFramed Commissions, Format Photography Festival Room 18 Click
Ikon for Artists. Ikon Gallery Birmingham UK Click
2019
#The Twin, Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art Click
ITV Creates Click
Change in View. Work from the Camden Collection curated by Liz Hingley. Swiss Cottage Gallery, London Click
2018
RCA Secret 2018. Royal College of Art, London Click
2017
The Evolution of Language; An infographic by Bharti Parmar. Pidginy Linguish, Camden Kala, London Click
Bristle: Hair and Hegemony*. Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, IR Click
Armel Beaufils, le Regard des femmes*. Curated by Sharon Kivland. Art Festival Saint-Briac sur Mer with FRAC Bretagne, FR Click
2016
Now! Now! In more than one place*. Curated by Sonia Boyce. Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK Click
2015
Salon. Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham, UK Click
Pulpa, A Paper Show*. RK Burt Gallery, London, UK
2014
Sluice_Fundraiser Auction at the Hospital Club London, UK
Oriel Davies Open 2014* Click
The Marquetarian. Artists’ Studio, New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
2013
Shakti*. Meadow Arts. Kedleston Hall NT, Derbyshire, UK Click
2012
Celeste International Art Prize*, Rome Click
Aedas Presents*. Aedas Global Architects, Birmingham. Curated by Charlie Levine
Allotment. Trove, MAC, Birmingham, UK
2010
Sacrament of Marriage, Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK Click
2008
Traditional Skills: New Thinking. Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, UK
Florilegium. Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK
2007
Kiss & Tell. The Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, USA Click
2006
Depth of Field*. Conversations Between Photography and Textiles. MAC, Birmingham and tour, UK
2004-05
arttextiles3*. The Third Major Survey of British Artists Referencing Textile. Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery and tour, UK
2003
True Stories*. Wolverhampton Art Gallery touring to Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Universidade de São Paulo and The Waterhall Gallery of Modern Art, Birmingham, UK
2002
Homegrown. Chuck Works, Birmingham, UK
2001
Compute. Stroud House Gallery, Stroud, UK
Purse. Werkgalerie, Dresden, DE
2000
RCA Secret 2000. Royal College of Art, London
1999
Absolut Secret 1999, Royal College of Art, London
1998
Artists’ Books and Multiples ’98. Birmingham Central Library and touring, UK
Identity and Diversity: Contemporary Asian Art. City Gallery Leicester, De Montford Hall and touring, UK
1997
Azaadi; Independent Spaces. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence. Six British Asian artists, Bharti Parmar, Rasheed Araeen, Saleem Arif, Jagjit Chuhan, Amal Ghosh and BICA. Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, UK
National Westminster Bank Artists’ Loan Scheme, Exeter Healthcare Arts, UK
Digital Journeys. The City Gallery, Leicester, UK
Serious Signatures, Exeter Faculty of Arts and Education, UK
1996
Printmaker of the Month. The City Gallery, Leicester, UK
1995
Photo Alternative. Quaker Gallery, London
1994
INTER-ARC, Collaborative Multimedia Satellite Transmissions. Vigo, ES
Bookworks. Gallery II, University of Bradford, UK
ABCEDARY. Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, UK
Printmakers Council Print Exhibition. Lethbury Galleries, Central St Martins School of Art, London
1993
Bradford Open Print Exhibition*. Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK
Staff and students print portfolio. Flowers East Gallery and Royal College of Art, London
1992
Count the Plastic Kettles. MA Show, Henry Moore Gallery, Royal College of Art, London
Children Nationwide. Royal College of Art, London
Prints by staff and students at the Royal College of Art. Duna Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Residencies and academic fellowships
2026
Maker/Creator Fellow, Winterthur Library and Museum, Delaware USA
2017 (and 2015-16)
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland ➣
2015-16
School of Art, Birmingham City University, UK
2015
Chhaap Foundation for Printmaking Trust, Baroda, India ➣
2014
New Art Gallery Walsall, UK ➣
2000-02
Research Fellow in Fine Art. University of Wolverhampton, UK
2004
Light Work-Autograph (Association of Black Photographers) AIR Program. Syracuse, NY, USA ➣
1991
Faculty of Fine Arts. MS University Baroda, India
Awards
2023
ACTA Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Awards Finalist
2021
ACE Project Grant, Khadi, British Textile Biennial 2021
2020
Re-Framed Bursary click
an-Artists Information Company Time Space Money Award
2015
Arts Council England, Grants for the Arts
TPWM bursary to visit British Art Show 8 to interview Catherine Aldred, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
2014
TPWM bursary to visit Liverpool Biennial to interview CEO Sally Tallant Click
2014
a-n New Collaborations Award to research the Hairworkers of Våmhus Sweden Click
2012
Finalist Celeste International Art Prize, Rome
2006
Postgraduate Research Funding awarded University of Wolverhampton
1998
Arts Council England, West Midlands Arts Creative Ambition Award
1991
Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
1990
Henry Moore Scholarship, Royal College of Art, London
1989
Royal West of England Academy Graduate Bursary
Conferences and speaking engagements
2026
When granny met Gandhi. The Mahatma’s winning over of Blackburn mill-workers in 1931. Working Class British Art Network. Everyman Theatre Liverpool Click
Exploring Love, Loss and Craft through Cyanotype. Wolverhampton Literature Festival Click
2025
Gathering Threads, Sounds and Stories. Ikon Gallery Birmingham Click
What happens to the work afterwards? Craftspace at the Hub Sleaford Click
Hear Hear podcast Coventry Cathedral Click
Facets. Alumna lecture Coventry University
2024
Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites. Lunchtime talk Dr Bharti Parmar and Dr Kate Nichols. Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham
Cotton: Material as Political at Greenbelt Festival August 2024 Click
On Landscape. Discussion with Bharti Parmar, Corinne Fowler, Andy Holden and Ben Rivers National Treasures: Constable in Bristol “Truth to Nature” exhibition. Bristol Museum and Art Gallery Click
2023
In Practice – Race, Empire and the PreRaphaelites; exploring strategies for reframing Victorian art and design collections. Museums Association Conference 23, The Power of Museums Click
Art, Environment and Empire. Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham Click
(re)Imagining Futures: Shifting Methodologies, Textiles Society of America Colloquium Click
2022
Symposium. Stories of Cotton. Chaired by Dr Christine Checinksa V&A. Crafts Council Gallery London. Click
In Conversation – Walks through Colonial Britain. Keynote with Prof Corinne Fowler. Museums Association Conference Click
In Conversation| New Collecting Award with curator Uthra Rajgopal. Whitworth Art Gallery Eventbrite
2021
Breaking Down Borders: Movement & Migration Through Cloth, with Alice Kettle, Bharti Parmar, Raisa Kabir, Serkan Delice and host Amber Butchart. Blackburn Cathedral as part of British Textile Biennial 2021 Click
Creative Conversation with Female Artists of the Global Majority, Migrant Festival, Ikon Gallery Birmingham Click
Artists in Dialogue: Contemporary responses to C19th art, design and Empire, chaired by Dr Anna Arabindan-Kesson. Race, Empire and the Pre-Raphaelites, British Art Network and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Click
All Our Histories. An Arts & Heritage and Newcastle University contemporary art commissioning inclusion research group.
2019
Materials Lab. Materiality/Material Culture in Creative Practice inaugural lecture. Royal College of Art, London, UK. Click
Memory, Site and Artefact. Research group lecture, Plymouth College of Art, UK.
New Year’s Resolutions. Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK Click
The Precious Clay After Dark. Museum of Royal Worcester, UK Click
2018
Black Pearl (precious little girl). With Dr Christine Checinska. After Empire? The Contested Histories of Decolonisation, Migration and Race in Modern Britain. University of Leeds, UK Click
2018
Creating a limited edition print portfolio. Launch of Tesserae, Shapes that Tessellate portfolio at Grand Union, Birmingham UK Click
2016
A Grammar of Sentiment. Talking Practice, School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University, UK Click
Ploca-cosmos; hair, entanglement and the universe. Bodily Matters: Human Biomatter in Art, Materials/Aesthetics/Ethics. Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, UK Click
2014
From Bombay to ‘bombassa’; Victorian women in black and A Coat in a Day; the Throckmorton Coat at Coughton Court. Clothes, Cloth and Culture Group, Stuart Hall Library, Iniva, London Click
Archive Fever: Uses of Cloth as ‘Document’ in contemporary art. Joint presentation with Dr Christine Checinska. At Work in the Archive. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, UEA Click
CloTHINK Fashion, textile, body, visual and material cultures research group. Northumbria University, Newcastle cloTHINK
2013
Widow’s Weeds. Reflections on Black. Panel with Dr Christine Checinska et al. Pasold Conference 2013: Sourcing the Archive: new approaches to materialising textile history. Goldsmiths College, University of London Click
Black Pearl (precious little girl). With Dr Christine Checinska. Lessons in Geography International Conference. MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) Birmingham Lessons in Geography Abstract
Shakti Live. Kedleston Hall, Derby. A Meadow Arts Exhibition. Click
2005
How C19th Jewellery Commemorated Rites of Passage. A Contemporary Artist’s Perspective. Birth Marriage Death Conference. Department of English Studies. University of Stirling, Scotland Click
Academic
Editorial
2020-2023
Co-editor Volume 4 Colour, Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of World Textiles
Teaching
1993-to date
1993-1997 Full-time lecturer, BA (Hons) Visual Arts, Faculty of Arts & Education, Exeter, University of Plymouth, UK
Visiting/part-time tutor at UK Universities including Derby University, University Centre Colchester, Leeds Arts University, Plymouth College of Art, Brighton University, Bath Spa University, Birmingham City University, Coventry University, Oxford Brookes, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art Oxford, Royal College of Art and University of Wolverhampton
Collections
The Crafts Council Collection, UK
The Art Fund New Collecting Award, Whitworth Art Gallery and Museum Manchester, UK
Friends of Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
The Government Art Collection, UK
Camden Art Collection, London, UK
Vanley Burke Archive, UK
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, UK
Light Work, Syracuse, NY, USA
International Arts Collection, Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK
The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
Wakefield Art Gallery, UK
Coventry University and Art and Design Library, UK
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
University of Plymouth, Exeter, UK
Royal College of Art, London, UK
University of Baroda, India
Chelsea College of Art & Design, UK
Leicester County Council, UK
Private collections UK and overseas
Consultancy
2021-
Museums Designation Panel, Arts Council England
Trustee Arts & Heritage
2019-2020
Artistic and Quality Assessment, Arts Council England
2018-2019
Advisory Panel Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art 2019
2014-19
Trustee Meadow Arts UK
2008-2011
Board of Directors mac Birmingham, UK
2001-02
West Midlands Arts, Combined Arts Advisors Scheme
2000-01
West Midlands Arts, Visual Arts Artist Advisor
Education
2009
University of Wolverhampton, UK. PhD
Director of Studies, Prof. Tim Collins (Wolverhampton) and supervised by Prof. Antonia Payne (Worcester) and Dr. Jacques Rangasamy (Salford). Examined by Prof. Gen Doy (De Montfort) and Dr. Kristina Niedderer (Wolverhampton)
1992
Royal College of Art, London, UK. MA Fine Art Printmaking
1989
Coventry Polytechnic, UK. BA (Hons) Fine Art