Sabba S. Elahi weaves through records of time --- family photographs, oral histories, and the fractures of personal and institutional memory. Elahi's art is largely impacted by the socio-political issues around Islam, the state of Pakistan, and her proximity and distance as a South Asian American. Her inspiration is drawn from textiles, family photographs, media imagery, the immigration movement, and feminist theory, as she engages in participatory research, dialogues with Muslim women in the U.S., family and friends in the U.S., Middle East, and Pakistan and the larger South Asian American community. As an artist she bares witness to unjust realities, invisible and censored stories. 

Sabba Syal Elahi is an interdisciplinary artist and art educator. From 2009-2011 Sabba curated the visual art of Chicago based South Asian artists for an annual exhibition and performance evening, Voices of Resistance.  In summer of 2009, Sabba joined Marwen as Coordinator of College and Career Programs, a position which compliments her psychology and visual arts background and professional experience with youth, families, and communities of color.  Sabba received her M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, recently participated in a Teaching Artist Residency at Ragdale and exhibited her work through the International Museum of Women.