Contributor

Shaheer Zazai is a Toronto-based Afghan-Canadian artist with a studio practice both in painting and digital media. His practice focuses on exploring and attempting to investigate the development of cultural identity in the present geopolitical climate and diaspora. Zazai’s digital works make use of Microsoft Word and imagery drawn from traditional Afghan carpets. Through mimicking carpet-making methods, Zazai creates his own designs in Microsoft Word, where every knot of a carpet is translated into a typed character. Zazai received a BFA from OCAD University in 2011 and was the OCAD University Digital Painting Atelier Artist in Residence in 2015 for the production of his first Digital Carpet. He is a recipient of Ontario Arts Council grants, and has participated in group and solo exhibitions at the Walper Hotel in Kitchener (CAFKA), the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Hazelton Lanes Art Festival, Double Happiness Projects, Capacity 3 Gallery, Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant, and Patel Brown Gallery. Zazai was also a finalist for EQ Bank’s Emerging Digital Artist Award in 2018. His digital works have been covered by CBC Arts in 2018 and Ajam Media Collective in 2019.