The screenshot interrupts the flow, capturing a fleeting thought within the machinery of creation. It is a time stamp, a photograph, or an idea jotted down in a notebook. The act of capturing a thought gives a fleeting moment a platform to become something.
Shaheer Zazai
Shaheer Zazai is an Afghan-Canadian artist with a current studio practice in painting and digital media. He received a BFA from OCAD University in 2011.
Zazai’s practice focuses on the development of cultural identity in the present geopolitical climate and diaspora. While the digital practice is a process-based exploration, the paintings have been an internal investigation into vulnerability and fear.
Over time, Zazai’s material vocabulary has expanded into textile work, site-specific public art installations and video works with his lens becoming self-reflective.
Zazai is a recipient of the TFVA Visual Artist Award, several Ontario Arts Council grants, and he was a finalist for EQ Bank’s Emerging Digital Artist Award. He has had several solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Zazai will open a solo exhibition at Art Gallery of Mississauga in January 2026 and will participate in a group exhibition at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design in 2026.
Each screenshot captures a moment of pause within the flow of making, a small act of noticing amid continuous motion.
In his novel of the same name, science fiction author William Gibson once described pattern recognition as a “gift and a trap,” which is a generous way of saying we search for meaning even when it may or may not exist.
A response to BlackFlash’s Fall/Winter issue “Infinities.”
BlackFlash’s Fall/Winter 2021 issue contains a limited-edition risograph print by Shaheer Zazai.
‘Infinities’ brings together a range of Canadian artists and writers to examine the influence of the traditions and conventions of Islamic visual cultures on contemporary art. From techniques and symbols to concepts and designs, artists such as Tazeen Qayyum, Abdi Osman, Shaheer Zazai, Azadeh Elmizadeh, and Jamelie Hassan have employed various methods and materials to not only show the ways in which Islamic visual cultures continues to inform their work, but also the challenges, possibilities and implications in doing so.