Shafina Jaffer

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Shafina Jaffer is a Tanzanian-born multidisciplinary artist whose practice bridges spirituality, ecology, and contemporary consciousness. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Art & Design and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, and has undertaken further specialist training at the Ruskin School of Art -Oxford University, the Slade School of Fine Art-UCL, and The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. Having lived across continents, her work reflects a deeply layered synthesis of heritage, faith, and global consciousness.

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Her work has gained international recognition through exhibitions and commissions across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Her ongoing series Global Conference of the Birds has been exhibited in London and internationally, while her painting Take Me Away was projected at the Coronation Concert of King Charles III at Windsor Castle in 2023. In the same year, she was shortlisted for the Hyundai Award for Sustainability and Creative Practice. Her works have been presented at major cultural platforms including the Dubai World Trade Centre and the National Gallery of Tanzania, and featured in Twiga, the inflight magazine of Air Tanzania.

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Her artworks are held in significant private and institutional collections, including royal collections and the collection of Malala Yousafzai, as well as permanent installations at the Ismaili Centre Houston, the Ismaili Centre Paris, and the Aga Khan Hospital, reflecting the enduring cultural and spiritual resonance of her work.

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Rooted in sustainability and sacred materiality, Jaffer works with organic elements such as bark cloth, natural pigments, minerals, and gold. Drawing on Sufi philosophy, sacred geometry, and mythological archetypes, her practice creates immersive visual languages that transcend the boundaries between the material and the metaphysical.