Zalika Azim is a New York based artist and educator with ancestral roots in Aiken, South Carolina and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Her conceptual practice explores the tensions between personal and collective narratives (both known and indecipherable) in order to explore black movement, belonging, and possibility. Azim received a BFA in Photography & Imaging from New York University (2014), and a BA in Social and Cultural Analysis from New York University (2014). Upon graduation, she pursued an independent art career while working at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Aperture Foundation. She returned to her practice in 2018, and completed her MFA in Photography from the University of California Los Angeles (2023).
Azim's work has been presented in solo exhibitions with Baxter Street at The Camera Club of New York (NY) and Soho20 Gallery (NY). Group exhibitions include Various Small Fires (CA), The Mistake Room (CA), New Wight Gallery, University of California Los Angeles (CA), San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (CA), 1708 Gallery (VA), Milwaukee Art Museum (WI), Gagosian (NY), Welancora Gallery (NY), Meyerhoff Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art (MD), The African American Museum in Philadelphia (PA), Dorsky Gallery (NY), and The Dean Collection (FL). Azim has completed residencies with Pratt>FORWARD (2021), the McColl Center for Art + Innovation (2020), NXTHVN (2019-20), Shandaken Projects (2019-20), BRIC (2019), and Baxter Street at The Camera Club of New York (2018).
She was recently appointed as the 2023-2024 St. Elmo Arts Fellow, in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Texas at Austin.