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Naheen Ahmed (Self_Saboteur) is an emerging illustrator, comic artist and zinester based in Canada. She is best known for her work exploring disability and trauma through expressive line work and bright contrasting colours. She is heavily inspired by 19th century Buddhist Thangka paintings, Mughal art, 16th century Rajput Court Paintings and rickshaw street art. Naheen is the producer of RAW: Race & Disability Zine Anthology, which showcases visual, written and musical works by 12 disabled BIPOC artists who explore the topic of race and disability. Her work has been featured on platforms including CBC News, Ottawa Inshallah, SICK Zine, Maythorn, Femme and Dandy, and Bite Back Distro. When Naheen isn’t creating something, she’s taking care of her two old cats and eating spicy food that makes her cry.
Naheen has created a set of original Illustrations for the Aging, Arts, Accessibility learning module, using her colourful style to reveal the desirability of aging.
Click into the gallery below for more information about each piece.
An illustration by Naheen Ahmed of a group of people touching and interacting with a tactile artwork of multicoloured spirals on a table. To the right, an older white man wearing black glasses and orange shirt and using a wheelchair rests his hands on table. Behind him an older woman with tan skin and short white hair leans forward to touch the artwork. Next to her, an older brown man with a blue turban and grey beard leans on his cane with one hand and touches the art piece with his other hand. On the right side at the front, a brown girl with a pink top and blue skirt stands with both hands on the table. A young white boy with curly dark blue hair stands behind her, tugging on her shoulder. Behind the two children, an older woman with pale skin stands with her hands crossed over her body. She is wearing round glasses, a pink hijab, and a blue abaya. Beside her stands a non-binary person with short brown hair with pink highlights. They are wearing an orange dress and one of their hands is on the art piece. At the centre left of the image, a young black woman with curly hair and an amputated arm touches the art piece. She is wearing a gray striped top and white pants. An illustration by Naheen Ahmed of an older brown woman who is wearing a pink sari and sitting in a green wheelchair on a green lawn, with a starry blue sky behind her. The sari is draped over her head, covering her white hair. She is petting an orange cat that is sitting on her lap. A dark blue frame surrounds the entire image. An illustration by Naheen Ahmed of hands creating a mixed media artwork of a dark blue starry sky. On the left of the image, a hand with brown skin adds an orange stroke to the painting. At the centre of the image, a hand with beige skin and a hand with dark brown skin work together to add a light blue spiral to the canvas using a pencil crayon. On the right, a hand with dark brown skin holds a sewing needle with pink thread, making a triangular shape on the starry sky. An illustration by Naheen Ahmed of a starry blue and purple universe with a bursting comet, a sun and moon icon in yellow and white, a pink flower shedding its petals, a green leafy stem, and a brown hourglass tipped sideways.
