Shafina Jaffer

Shafina Jaffer is an African artist who has completed her Graduate Diploma in Art & Design & Masters in Painting from the Royal College of Art. Additionally, she has been trained at Ruskin School of Art, Slade School of Art and The Prince’s Foundation of Traditional Arts, United Kingdom. She has lived in multiple countries across different continents and is currently residing in Tanzania. Her works have been featured in several international exhibitions and publications. More recently her painting, Take Me Away, was selected to be shown at the Coronation Concert of their Majesties King Charles III & Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle.

In her view, the current landscape of ‘spiritual’ art is shaped by interpretations primarily derived from a religious lens. Her goal is to move away from such interpretations that fall under a religious aegis, aiming instead to intermingle scientific, philosophical and nature themes with the spiritual. In a maxim: she fosters an appreciation of spiritual art through thematic expressions that are a blend of scientific, philosophical or naturalistic reason — not religious nor esoteric reason.  

Furthermore, as an artist whom aims to provoke critical interpretations of her art from spectators she leverages the concept of archetypes and mono-myth. In that, across civilisation - as well as across a globalised monoculture - there exists, and persists, social and cultural themes upon which she capitalise on. These archetypes being ones that pertain to: gender, feminism, the identity of the ‘self’ and divinity. 

In the future, Shafina aims to further explore the human anatomy, its relationship to spirituality and nature, whilst also embedding techniques of African art with modern art.

Shafina Jaffer uses her art to express her sensitivity towards nature and spirituality. These themes are often the ones articulated in her work where she aims to intermingle scientific, philosophical and nature themes with the spiritual. Moreover, this abstract attitude is further exalted with her use of authentic African organic materials, such as bark cloth, soil, crystals, cow bone, gold, saffron, turmeric, coffee, charcoal, henna and found items from her environment. Shafina has been trying to develop something that creates bridges between Indian, African & Modern Art. Being from a minority in her part of the world she feels that it’s vital that she pioneers a new marriage of different cultures.

Psychography and daily mediation before painting plays an important part in her practice as she believes it is the process that makes a painting spiritual, not only the art.

Creating a variety of pigments and colours from leaves & minerals & food and combining these with eco printing adds a different layer to her work; rubbing & layering, drawing in graphite and charcoal & then adding water to make it more intense. The pencil work is more focused on iconography & spirituality. Drawing on canvas again to her are scrolls with messages which she channels. Eco-printing by bringing in leaves & the rain she feels God is painting with her in some pieces (Word of God in the symbols). The peacock or an illusion to a peacock being present is often seen in her drawings, representing admiration by all and although wise, it is burdened by its beauty: it cannot fly. There is constant innovation & experimentation in her practice.

Shafina believes that the world needs "GRATITUDE" and her practice focuses on projecting the same emotion in to universal energetic field. Her bark cloth paintings appearing more as artefacts that hold messages from the other side.