Shanzay Subzwari

Visual artist, illustrator and art writer. Interested in kitsch, pop culture, currency, consumerism and the unseen. Currently hosts The Art Lounge Talks on Instagram Live and YouTube. My art x fashion brand : House of Subzwari.

My work combines elements from Mughal miniature paintings, currency notes and popular culture to comment on politics, history, society and the human condition.

Pursued an MFA from the School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University, London, UK, on the British Chevening Scholarship (2019/2020).

BFA from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, Pakistan, 2014.

Graduated from Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture with a Distinction in Dissertation, and the Sher Asfandyar Award for Academic Excellence in Fine Art. She writes art reviews and articles for various publications, and hosts the Nigaah Art Awards.

Shanzay has been exhibiting since her student days. Internationally, she has shown in London, U.K. (2021, 2020, 2019, 2016), Venice Biennale, Italy (Imago Mundi 2019) and Istanbul, Turkey (2011), and her work is represented by GraFFik Gallery, London, UK.

Artist-in-residence programmes include the ‘Watch and Talk’ programmeat the Festival Belluard Bollwerk International, Fribourg, Switzerland, in 2016, and the fully-funded SAARI Residency in Mynamaki, Finland in 2018. She was selected for the Goodenough College Dean's Seminar in Madrid, Spain in 2020.

Shanzay has had 3 solo shows in Pakistan and numerous group shows. Her video collaboration with Joel Chernin (UK), funded by Arts Council England, had its film festival debut at the Divvy Film Festival in 2021 in Islamabad, Pakistan.