Born in Vancouver in 1986, Salima Punjani is a Montréal-based multisensory artist whose work explores connection, care, and sensory accessibility through immersive sound, touch, and interactive installation.

With a background in social work, her practice blends art and relational aesthetics, transforming biological and everyday sensory data — such as heartbeats, brainwaves, or domestic soundscapes — into environments that invite rest, empathy, and shared experience.

Her recent work explores themes such as pleasure, grief, rest as resistance to systemic injustice and how medical data can be subverted into finding human connection rather than pathologies.

Working across sound, vibration, soft sculptures, multimedia and participatory storytelling, Salima creates spaces that challenge traditional sensory hierarchies, contributing to contemporary conversations on accessibility, intimacy, and multisensory artistic practice.

She holds a B.A. in Communications and Political Science from Carleton University, a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from Concordia University and a Master’s in Social Work from McGill University with research focusing on the intersection of the arts and care work.

She has shown work at many artist-run centres across Canada as well as the Phi Centre, Musée Regionale de Rimouski and the Spatial Sound Institute. Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Montreal Arts Council, Quebec Arts Council, International Development Research Council and SSHRC.

She is currently enjoying playing with synthesizers and deep listening while getting lost in botanical gardens.

Upcoming exhibitions and residencies:

Haptic Horizons with Vibrafusion Lab and Centre 3

Sensory Pluralities exhibition runs until April 25, 2026.

Wayfinders at MAI in Montreal

April 2-May 16, 2026

Workshop - Tender Frequencies - May 16 3:30-5:30pm at the MAI

CALQ NYC Residency

July-December 2026

VUCAVU Curatorial Incubator Project

Salima's 2025 projects and Research
Video made by Vjosana Shkurti

Salima describing her approach to art
Video made by Vjosana Shkurti for Ada X

I acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts