Shehzad Jaffer is a UK-based multidisciplinary artist and storyteller, born in Leicester to East African Asian parents. Working across sculpture, installation, and assemblage, he transforms found and discarded materials into interactive spaces that dissolve the boundaries between the real and the mythical.
graduate of the Royal College of Art and recipient of the Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, Jaffer aims to make art accessible through the use of his materials, hoping to inspire connection through creativity and self expression. He conjures immersive worlds that encourage reflection and dialogue, challenging the idea of a single reality and linear understandings of self and society.
Jaffer’s practice operates at the intersection of playfulness and socio-political reflection. Through coded narratives of love, pain, and discovery, he explores identity, collective memory, and performance within the flux of contemporary life, often using humour to reflect tragedy. Drawing on histories of migration and displacement, his work challenges colonial legacies through the magical and the theatrical, constructing alternate dimensions that mirror, distort, and reimagine our own. These speculative worlds question the stability of reality in an increasingly digital age, where humanity drifts ever further from the spiritual.
Education
2024/2025 Contemporary Art Practice MA, Royal College of Art
2023 Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Fine Art, First Class, De Montfort University
Awards and Achievements
2025 The Leverhulme Arts Scoholarship
2023 The Duncan Henderson-Therese Taylor Memorial Award-Exceptional
Achievement, De Montfort University
Commissions and Collections
2025 Upcoming Commission- Permanent Sculpture at Jardin al Andalas
Sculpture Park, Spain
2023 ‘Childs Play’ ILKON Gallery permanent collection
2022 ‘Cotton’ De Montfort University, ‘Being Here’ Collection
2022 Private Commission, plaster bust, Leicester,
UK Selected Solo
2024 ‘CASSAVA’, Garden, South Wigston, Leicester, UK
2023 ‘Children of Empire’, Leicester Adult Education Centre, Belvoir Street,
Leicester, UK
Joint Exhibitions
2025 CAP MA Degree Show, Royal College of Art, Battersea, London, UK
2024 ‘Living Archives’, CAP Gallery, RCA, Battersea, London, UK
2023 ‘NANIMA: THE REBELLION, Pendulum Chamber-Libra and the Pear Tree’,
Joint, Brunswick Art Gallery, Russell Square,
London, UK
2023 ‘NANIMA: THE REBELLION, Pendulum Chamber-Libra and the Pear Tree’,
ILKON Gallery, Ilkeston, UK
2023 ‘Pendulum Chamber’ De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
2021 ‘Habitat’ GraffWerk, Leicester, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 FREE RANGE, Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London, UK
2022. ‘Being Here’ Exhibition, LCB Depot, Leicester, UK
2022. ‘Being Here’ Exhibition, DMU Gallery, Atrium, De Montfort University,
Leicester,
UK
2022 ‘Point 2’ Exhibition, DMU Gallery Atrium, De Montfort University, Leicester,
UK
2022 Shop Front Gallery Exhibition, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
Professional Experience
2023 Figurative Sculpture Workshops, Self-directed, Leicester, UK