Artist Biography

Zahra Jewanjee (b. Pakistan, 1983) is an artist and educator living and working in the UAE. She received her BFA from the National College of Arts, Pakistan, and an MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, USA. Zahra was awarded the Salama Bint Hamdan Emerging. Artist Fellowship and full scholarship, Abu Dhabi in 2016. She was a recipient of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2024. Her residencies include the Residency Unlimited in New York and the Djerassi Artist Residency in California, Iowa Lake Side Laboratory, USA, Konvent Residencia, Spain, Campus Art Dubai Residency, UAE, and DAAR Residency in Bangladesh. Zahra exhibits nationally and internationally, and her work was featured in ‘Dimensions of Citizenship’ for the Venice Architecture Biennale – US Pavilion (2018), RISD NatureLab, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, MAS Context Chicago, Guernica Magazine, and TakeonArt, among other publications. She is a founder of ‘SoZa Collective’ and works as an Adjunct Professor at the American University in Dubai, UAE.

 

Her practice oscillates between painting, sculpture, and photography, often drawing from nature to explore themes of belonging, agency, and perception. She constructs intricate, entropic narratives that reflect human behavior and relational dynamics, offering a kind of visual poetry and an anthropological response that challenges fixed boundaries and seeks cosmic connection.

 

In 2025, Jewanjee was a resident of the Open Studio program at NIKA Project Space Dubai.