Amber Khokhar

Artist and designer Amber Khokhar combines her strong background in design with a diverse academic and practical knowledge of traditional art. Her achievements in Western design provide an arresting complement to her interest in her personal heritage and her enthusiasm for craft and design.

For 7 years Amber held the post of Sessional Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London on the World Art and Artefacts Programme where she specialised in patterns from the 3 Great Empires; Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal. As a design graduate from Central Saint Martin’s, she continues her commitment to the advancement and regeneration of Sacred and Traditional Arts as senior tutor on the Masters programme at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. Her educational work regularly takes her abroad whilst more recently her project with the De Morgan Foundation included a lecture at The London Mathematical Society, which explored ways of integrating art and maths.

Amber's compositions often consist of vegetal overlaps that draw one into an enchanted vegetal world of swirls, tendrils, stems, and flowers. Her tiles display exuberant naturalistic motifs that characterise the Iznik style of ceramic decoration that flourished under the Ottoman Turks, whilst her more geometric works betray a similar love for vegetal life through hue and tone.

Amber was the first person commissioned to design a modern carpet for Buckingham Palace by HRH Prince Charles after he saw her watercolour designs for the silk and wool carpet entitled 'Under which Rivers Flow'. Situated at the centre of Buckingham Palace the 40 metre long carpet sits alongside George IV's collection of paintings which include works by Holbein, Reubens, Rembrandt Canaletto and Van Dyke.

Amber's private clients include The Designers Guild, The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia and Rolls Royce. Her public commissions also include window designs for the 'The Wall of Faith' at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool; tiled wall panels for ‘The Prayer Hall’ at Islamia Girls School in London and ‘Parasol’ exhibited at The Victoria and Albert Museum in conjunction with ‘Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts’, Art Matters and Warren Park Children's Centre.

Amber conducts workshops and lectures at various institutions including The Prince's School of Traditional Arts and Birkbeck College in London. Amber’s ceramics, paintings and geometries have been exhibited locally and internationally including The William Morris Gallery, Clarence House in London and The Queen’s Museum in New York. She continues to work from her studio in London on bespoke commissions, creating highly collectable artworks.