Seema Shah: Missing Pieces
August 2 - 30, 2025
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Opening Reception: August 2, 6–8 PM – Free & Open to the Public
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Artist Talk and Exhibition Tour: August 16, 2 PM – Free & Open to the Public
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Collage workshop with Seema Shah: August 23 from 2-4pm. Register for workshop by clicking HERE.
Outsiders and Others is proud to present Seema Shah: Missing Pieces, the artists first solo exhibition with us.
Seema Shah is a Vancouver-based self-taught collage artist and writer.
Missing Pieces offers a subtle and nuanced representation of the lived experience of complex trauma, challenging preconceived ideas about how personal trauma manifests and is creatively expressed. The work doesn’t scream out, but rather calls the viewer in.
This exhibition is centered around a collection of 366 miniature collages on 2 3/4 ” x 1 3/8” shipping tags, one created every day of 2024 as part of a one-year project. The viewer is invited to come close to see the details and take time to experience these works.
Examining the collaged tags collectively, themes common to complex PTSD emerge, including fragmentation, disconnection, and isolation. Viewed together, this daily record conveys the relentlessness of the long-term effects of complex trauma.
An additional 100 tags created in 2014, as part of a similar project, show the persistence of these effects over time. The 2014 tags are a mix of drawings and collages, and represent the beginning of Seema’s journey as a collage artist.
Collages on vintage envelopes – a material connection to the past - complement the tags.
Seema’s creative process is intuitive and largely informed by her lived experience of C-PTSD. Spontaneous associations and unexpected juxtapositions give form to subconscious and embodied “knowing,” the place where disconnected traumatic memories live. Metaphor and symbolic imagery capture a felt sense, translate what
is beyond words, evoke connections between past and present, and link the personal to the universal.
What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) includes many of the symptoms of PTSD, including re-experiencing (e.g., flashbacks and nightmares), avoidance (e.g., avoiding distressing memories and external reminders), and hyperarousal (a heightened state of alertness and reactivity).
Because complex PTSD is most often the result of trauma that is chronic and experienced during an earlier stage of
development than PTSD, its impact on the nervous system tends to be more deeply ingrained. In addition to many
symptoms of PTSD, long-term effects of complex PTSD include difficulty regulating emotions, a negative self- concept, and difficulty forming and maintaining relationships.
AND THE PRESS IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE EXHIBITION!
Click on a logo to read about the exhibition.
Seema Shah
as bare as his feet
3 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
SOLD
Seema Shah
Seeing the Elephant
3 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Before, again
3 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
I really can't tell you why
4 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Shadow got hold
4 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
The Roughs
4 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Somewhere In Between
4 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Not a Fine Line
4 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
What Was
4 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Photographs can be overdone
5 1/8" x 3 5/16"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
perseitence of vision
5 5/16" x 3 1/8"
Mixed media collage on vintage envelope
SOLD
Seema Shah
This Old Place
5 5/16" x 3 1/8"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Now look pleasant
5 3/8" x 3 3/8"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Not All
5 3/8" x 3 3/8"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
it is not written in the script
5 5/16" x 3 7/16"
Collage on vintage envelope
SOLD
Seema Shah
Untitled
5 5/16" x 3 3/16"
Collage on vintage envelope
SOLD
Seema Shah
Looking In / Looking Out
5 5/16" x 3 3/8"
Mixed media collage on vintage envelope
SOLD
Seema Shah
Imaginary Conversation
6 1/2" x 3 5/8"
Collage on vintage envelope
SOLD
Seema Shah
Stepped Into Time
5 3/8" x 3 7/16"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
But which way was home?
4 3/4" x 3 3/4"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
Untitled
5 3/8" x 3 1/2"
Collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Seema Shah
On Page 12
4 5/8" x 3 3/8"
Mixed media collage on vintage envelope
$140 + tax
Shipping is available to anywhere in the world.
Buyer is responsible for any shipping and insurance costs.
Email us with your mailing information for a quote.
outsidersandothers@gmail.com
2014
My new year’s resolution for 2014 was to do something – anything – creative on a shipping tag every day that year. Even just a scribble. Giving myself this permission was key to successfully meeting my goal.
Why this resolution? A worsening of chronic fatigue syndrome in 2013 left me unable to write – my main creative focus at the time. I searched for an alternative – something that felt manageable and that I could do from bed. I came across this daily tag idea and it spoke to me.
I thought I’d probably write a few words or sentences on each tag, but I organically ended up creating drawings and collages, on many of them, often incorporating text in different and unexpected ways.
I’m not sure why I started to create collages. I was just naturally drawn to the medium, without thinking about why. In retrospect, I think I was innately drawn to the piecing together of disparate elements to form a new meaning and aesthetic.
By the end of 2014, I was inspired to focus more seriously on collage. I realized that, for me, collage lends itself particularly well to the expression of complex and layered narratives, leading to deeper self-understanding. These tiny works started me on a new path.
You can click on the above image to view and purchase these tags.
All tag collages are $25 each plus tax.
You can click on the above image to view and purchase these tags.
All tag collages are $25 each plus tax.
2024
In 2024, I replicated my shipping tag project from 2014, albeit for different reasons and in a modified format.
By late 2023, I wanted a break from creating work “for” something. I wanted to create with no end goal. The idea of the shipping tag project resurfaced. It would be a commitment to my own creative practice and also replicate the project exactly a decade later, having consistently focused on collage in the interim.
My 2024 new year’s resolution was to create a collage every day of the year. There was more intent than in 2014, with the focus on collage and the goal of creating a ‘piece’ every day. A challenging artistic exercise with greater expectations of myself than in 2014.
As the weeks went by, I started to see a story that these tiny works were telling – not just individually, but collectively. The exhibition grew from the realization that this one-year daily record of my inner world could potentially convey a deeper understanding of the more subtle and nuanced long-term effects of Complex PTSD.
You can click on the above image to view and purchase these tags.
All tag collages are $25 each plus tax.
You can click on the above image to view and purchase these tags.
All tag collages are $25 each plus tax.