Azma Salman was born in Larkana, Pakistan and raised in Lahore.
Coming from a family of artists, she opted to study visual arts at college and received her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore, graduating with Honours from 1995-1999. A year later she joined the MA(Hons) Visual Art Program at the same institution and after completing her first year, remained unconvinced of contemporary art practices. Readings in spirituality and art led her to The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London where she received her MA Degree in Visual Islamic and Traditional Art in 2006. Azma’s second year at the Masters took her to Turkey, where she discovered the traditional art of Ottoman Tezhib or Turkish Illumination and she began her training with Master Ayten Tiryaki in Istanbul. A month later she returned to London to explore and develop the new art form she had taken up as her subject of specialization.
After completing her post graduate , Azma returned to Pakistan and began teaching at the National College of Arts. In 2007, she received a scholarship from The Organization of Islamic Conference by The Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture to further study the art of tezhib which this led her to undertake a course under Master Emel Turkman. The institution gave her another scholarship the following year to continue her training under Master Ayten Tiryaki. In 2013 she completed another course with Master Nilofer Kurfeyz. She is presently learning under Master Necati Sancaktutan.
Azma Salman has taught at the National College of Arts for about nine years as Assistant Professor , visiting faculty . She has lectured and taught courses at The Government College University, Beacon House National University, Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore and at the VM Centre for Traditional Arts in Karachi. She was invited to conduct a workshop at The Islamic Arts Museum in Kaula Lumpur Malaysia in October 2017. The same year she taught two courses at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. She is the only Pakistani artist to date who has a formal degree in this area of Islamic art.
She lives and works in Lahore.