Exhibitions and Art Projects

Mystic Expressions — A Celebration of Sufi – October 2025

Mystic Expressions — A Celebration of Sufi – October 2025

4th to 12th October 2025
Backlit Gallery, Nottingham

Mystic Expressions showcases the artwork created through the Mystic Art Workshops at New Art Exchange. Over five weeks, participants explored Sufi teachings through creative practice, live music, and shared reflection. The resulting paintings and drawings reveal deeply personal yet collectively shaped responses, celebrating unity, spiritual connection, and the enduring influence of Sufi traditions on contemporary art.

Routes to Roots Exhibition

Routes to Roots – South Asian Heritage Month 2025

18th July to 17th August 2025
Browne Jacobson LLP, Nottingham
To commemorate South Asian Heritage Month 2025, a collection of my paintings will be on display at Browne Jacobson in Nottingham. This year’s theme, “Routes to Roots”, beautifully aligns with…
BACKLIT Studio, Nottingham

CO’- Exhibition

August 2023
BACKLIT Studio, Nottingham
Neelum Aftab’s latest work is presented in the ‘Co-‘exhibition at Backlit gallery in Aug, 2023. ‘Co’ was an exhibition that intended to explore the idea of the value of collaboration,…
Neelum Aftab is a fine artist, and her practice has portrayed the concept of third space relating to diaspora of South Asian communities. It shows various facets of cultural transformation, assimilation and cultural hybridisation.

Cultural Scent is in the Air

4th - 12th September 2021
BACKLIT Studio, Nottingham
A new exhibition which presents the outcome of the Cultural Focused Women Art workshops which have taken place during South Asian Cultural Heritage Month at the Backlit Gallery. These beautiful…
Cultural Focused Women Art Workshops
Cultural Focused Women Art Workshops
June - August, 2021
BACKLIT Studio, Nottingham
Neelum Aftab has run these workshops as Arts Council funded project at Backlit in 2021. The art workshops provided opportunities to the women of diverse backgrounds to share their culture…
Neelum had her second solo exhibition at the Arts Central Gallery Milton Keynes in 2017 which displayed her group portraiture as well groups of new conceptual figures. It showed the transition phase of Neelum’s practice, when stylistic portraiture was taking over by abstract figures.
Arts Central Gallery, Milton Keynes
25th February - 7th April 2017
Arts Central Gallery, Milton Keynes
Neelum had her second solo exhibition at the Arts Central Gallery Milton Keynes in 2017 which displayed her group portraiture as well groups of new conceptual figures. It showed the…
NN Contemporary Northampton
NN Contemporary Northampton
23rd - 26th November 2016
NN Contemporary, Northampton
Neelum exhibited her work in her first solo exhibition at NN Contemporary Northampton in 2016.. She wrote about her Conceptual Art Exhibition as: From Matisse to Henry Moore, generic figures…
About the Artist

Neelum is a practising artist based at Backlit studios in Nottingham. She started her art practice when she accomplished B.A Honours Fine Art from University of Northampton in 2012. Coming from a South Asian background her artistic practise originated portraying Pakistani culture and society which has taken varied phases over time. She has been particularly interested in portraying groups and culture which has arisen due to her previous degree in Sociology.