Get to know me
Rahimat Onize Shaibu also known as RahimArt...
is a Nigerian-born fine art and portrait photographer based in the United Kingdom. Her practice centres on conceptual portraiture and visual storytelling, exploring identity, womanhood, spirituality, cultural heritage, and emotional transformation. Through symbolism, intentional styling, and expressive use of colour and form, she creates images that exist between personal reflection and collective experience.
Her journey into photography began during her university years in Nigeria, where she discovered the camera as a tool for connection, a way to preserve memory, understand people, and translate emotion into visual language. What began as curiosity evolved into a deeply personal artistic practice rooted in observation, empathy, and storytelling.
Sunflower Girl 2024
Working across self-portraiture and collaborative portrait sessions, Rahimat approaches each image with care and intentionality. Her self-portraits serve as spaces of introspection, exploring vulnerability, faith, resilience, and transformation, while her portraits of others aim to portray subjects with dignity, authenticity, and imagination.
Drawing inspiration from African symbolism, natural elements, fabric, gesture, and performative expression, her work blends contemporary portraiture with conceptual narrative. Through this approach, she challenges fixed ideas of identity and invites viewers into moments of emotional reflection and connection.
Behind the scenes “Roots and Threads,” 2025
BTS Self-portrait, Sunflower Girl, 2024
Her photography has been exhibited across Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Europe, and internationally, including exhibitions at Espacio Gallery London, the Madhouse Gallery at the University of Lagos, and creative showcases across physical and online platforms. Her work has received awards, publications, and editorial recognition, contributing to an expanding international presence within contemporary photography.
Through RahimArt, she continues to develop projects that amplify African stories and explore the emotional complexity of human experience, creating images that encourage pause, reflection, and a deeper sense of belonging.
WSA 75th Annual Exhibition - New Art Gallery Walsall, 2025/26
RBSA Gallery
All Means All Exhibition - Espacio Gallery, 2025