About

Zakee Shariff – Artist, Textile Designer and Creative Director

Zakee Shariff is a London-based artist, textile designer, and creative director whose work bridges fine art, textile design, and creative direction. Since founding Zakee Shariff Studio in 1998, she has created a multifaceted practice encompassing painting, textile design, her self-titled printed ladies designer collection, and illustration, with exhibitions and collaborations spanning the UK, Japan, USA, Dubai, France, and Switzerland.

Working at the intersection of art and design, Zakee’s practice is characterised by a distinctive visual language that translates seamlessly across mediums. In painting, she works in both figurative and abstract forms across two interconnected approaches. Through spiritually guided work, intuition, personal healing, and emotion lead her process. It becomes a co-creation between herself and other dimensions, a dialogue unfolding on the canvas where ideas and feelings that cannot be written or spoken find form. This approach allows her to express emotions, gain insights, and receive confirmations, while creating openings for viewers to connect with feelings that resonate within themselves.

Zakee’s painted works explore color, pattern, and form with this intuitive sensibility, drawing from both Eastern and Western artistic traditions. The textile designs that emerge from her studio bring this painterly and spiritual practice into wearable and functional pieces, creating a bridge between the contemplative space of fine art and the tactile immediacy of design. Each creation reflects her commitment to craftsmanship and a deep understanding of how pattern and surface can transform everyday objects into works of art.

The Zakee Shariff Studio serves as a space for creative experimentation, where commercial projects and fine art practices inform and enrich one another. Her self-titled printed clothing collections showcased this synergy, featuring bold, hand-painted designs that celebrate individuality and artistic expression in fashion. Through her work as a creative director, Zakee has collaborated with brands and institutions internationally, bringing her unique aesthetic vision to diverse projects while maintaining the artistic integrity that defines her practice.

The textile designs that emerge from her studio are abstracted from her fine art, originating in her drawings and paintings and bringing this painterly and spiritual practice into wearable and functional pieces. Drawing on a legacy of print design, she is especially inspired by repeat pattern design and committed to creating prints with layered meaning. Her intention is to make textiles that empower the wearer or an interior.

Based in her London studio, Zakee continues to push the boundaries of her interdisciplinary practice, creating work that challenges conventional distinctions between art, design, and fashion while remaining deeply rooted in the joy of making, the transformative power of color and pattern, and the spiritual dialogue that guides her artistic vision.

The Zakee Shariff Studio is always open to new creative partnerships, if you have an idea for a project or collaboration, please do contact the studio.

Coaching and Facilitation
Through her coaching practice Dream Forward, Zakee provides 1:1 transformation coaching and facilitates intimate women’s groups, combining creative industry insight with her coaching training. She creates inclusive spaces where women explore emotional resilience, intuition, values alignment, and personal empowerment. Together they work on boundary-making, gaining clarity on their bigger vision, creative practices and businesses, and processing the transitions they navigate at all stages of life, empowering women to live more authentic, intentional lives.