Saba Nabeela Maheen is a Fine Art photographer interested in representation in the photographic medium. A sweet spot in portraiture, documentarian, and street photography, she seeks to capture stories for posterity. She aims to record moments not otherwise seen or known. She was born and raised a Southerner in Lawrenceville, GA, and is native Bengali by blood.
Her practice revolves around conflicts of identity, duality, and diaspora; projects, in short, commonly share the phenomenology of ancestral traumas, wisdom, and memory through a multi-medium approach (photographic, filmic, printed matter, & sculpture).
She graduated from Dartmouth College having earned a degree in Studio Art (Photography), Human Centered Design and Arabic Language. She currently lives in New Jersey and obtained her MFA in Design at Mason Gross School of Art at Rutgers University. =
Available for prints, commissions, event and commercial photography & videography projects in Atlanta, San Francisco, and the NJ/NY metropolitan area.
CV
RECOGNITION
2025 Techne Award in Design at Mason Gross School of Art | Rutgers University
2024 Mason Gross School of Art Inclusive Teaching Grant | Rutgers University
2024 Scarlet Arts Rx Grant | Rutgers University
2020 Wolfenden Fine Arts Prize | Dartmouth College Department of Studio Art
2020 1st Place in Photography | NH Art Association College Art Invitational
2020 DCF Project Grant | Dartmouth Centers Forum
2020 Student Project Grant | Leslie Center for the Humanities
2020 Robert Dance Arts Fund, Hopkins Center for the Arts
2019 1st place entry, Call for Art | Leslie Center for the Humanities
2019 1st place JMC 48hr Film Competition, co-creator | Jones Media Center
EXHIBITIONS
2024 Welcome Back Show, Mason Gross Galleries, New Brunswick, NJ (group show)
2024 Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raj’un: In Remembrance, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (installation)
2023 Exquisite Lives: A Collective Installation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (installation)
2020 NH College Art Invitational, Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery, Portsmouth, NH (group show)
2019 Portrait of a Dartmouth Student, Black Visual Arts Center, Hanover, NH (group show)
2018 Spirituality: booth Exhibition, Hopkins Center for the Arts; Hanover, NH, 2018 (solo show)
FELLOWSHIPS, COMMISSIONS & OPPORTUNITIES
2025 Teaching Artist | Stitching for Life: Scarlet Arts Rx Workshop, New Brunswick, NJ
2025 Panelist | Screening of No Other Land at White River Indie Film Festival, White River Junction, VT
2024 Designer | Brand and print design for Synonymms: Rutgers in NY show; Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY
2024 Workshop Facilitator | Learning and Printing Arabic with Lego; Spring Festival at MGSA, New Brunswick, NJ
2024 Workshop Facilitator | Tatreez: Palestinian Embroidery, Spring Festival at MGSA, New Brunswick, NJ
2021-23 Member | Marching Bass Drummer & Percussionist, San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, SF, CA
2018 Designer | Dartmouth 250th Anniversary Bookplate in letterpress, Sphinx Foundation, Hanover, NH
2018 Commission | 3500 letterpress notecards for alumni | Dartmouth Office of Development, Hanover, NH
PUBLICATIONS
2024 A Selection of Poems by Refaat Alareer and Marcellus ‘Khaliifa’ Williams | artist book: Laser-cut leather pages with tatreez stitching, ring bound
2020 LACUNA | artist book: digital print from 35mm film negatives, commercial casebinding, handcut collage & poem accompaniment
2019 I was not aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life | artist book: 35mm film negative, vellum, drum leaf handbound in case
2019 HOME | artist book + collective handwriting: digital inkjet prints, dyed Japanese mulberry paper, handbound French link stitch binding