Shaheer Zazai

Shaher Zazai is a Toronto-based Afghan-Canadian artist whose practice spans painting and digital media. His work explores the shifting nature of cultural identity within contemporary geopolitical realities and the Afghan diaspora, often reflecting on how displacement, memory, and belonging intersect in everyday life.

In his digital works, Zazai reimagines traditional Afghan carpet designs through Microsoft Word, meticulously constructing intricate patterns using the program’s basic symbols and characters. This process translates the tactile language of weaving into the digital realm, serving as both a meditation on cultural continuity and a commentary on the impact of technology on tradition. His paintings further this exploration, creating layered visual narratives that blur the line between heritage and contemporary expression.

Zazai’s work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally, earning recognition for its unique interplay between craft, code, and cultural history. Through his practice, he aims to open dialogue about the complexities of identity in the context of migration, loss, and resilience. By embedding motifs of Afghan tradition into digital frameworks, he both preserves and transforms them—questioning what it means to carry culture across borders, screens, and generations.