Aqsa Arif is a Scottish-Pakistani interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of film, photography, sculpture, and poetry. Her practice explores themes of syncretic identity, displacement, and cultural dissonance, often grounded in the narrative structures of folklore, mythology, and cinematic language. Navigating these realms through the lens of her own dual identity and lived experience, she reclaims and reimagines both pre- and post-colonial worlds.

She was nominated for the major national touring exhibition Jerwood Survey III, launching at Southwark Park Galleries in 2024 and touring Cardiff, Sheffield, and Edinburgh. She was awarded the 20/20 residency by UAL’s Decolonising Arts Institute, hosted at Kelvingrove, culminating in her first solo museum exhibition and 20 new permanent acquisitions across UK public art collections.

In 2023, Arif received the Platform: Early Career Artist Award and the RSA Morton Award. Arif’s short film, Spicy Pink Tea won Best Dance Film at Aesthetica Film Festival and earned a nomination for the Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize at GSFF 2023. She has been selected for residencies at Hospitalfield, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh Printmakers, and the Hugo Burge Foundation. Most recently, she was the recipient of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Research residency at the British School at Rome.