Who we are

Anwar Jalal Shemza

ARTIST 1928-1985: The shemza.digital project is based on Anwar’s work

Anwar Jalal Shemza (born Simla 1928, died Stafford 1985), is a world-renowned British Pakistani painter. There has been greater recognition of his work since his death in 1985 beginning with the pioneering exhibition ‘The Other Story’ 1989, Hayward Gallery. Shemza’s painting ‘The Wall’ was chosen to illustrate the cover of the catalogue. His unique style developed through a painting practice which fused Western ideas of abstraction with Eastern influences such as Islamic architecture and calligraphy.

Selected public collections include: Tate, British Museum (UK), Metropolitan Museum, (USA), Guggenheim (Abu Dhabi), Sharjah Art Foundation, and M+ Museum, (Hong Kong).

The Estate of Anwar Jalal Shemza is represented by Hales Gallery (London) and Jhaveri Contemporary (London, India).

www.anwarshemza.com

Aphra Shemza

ARTIST & MANAGER OF THE ESTATE OF ANWAR JALAL SHEMZA: Founder and creative direction of the shemza.digital project.

Aphra Shemza is a London-based multimedia artist and the granddaughter of Anwar Shemza. Her work explores Modernism, her Islamic cultural heritage, sustainable practice and creating art for all. As an artist and activist, she finds ambitious ways to fuse methodologies from the past with new innovations in technology to imagine what the role of art could be in the future.

Alongside her practice, Aphra is the Manager of the Estate of Anwar Jalal Shemza and an expert in his work. In 2016 Shemza contributed an article to Tate Etc. which coincided with a Spotlight display of his work at Tate Britain. She is currently cataloguing the Estate archive.

www.aphrashemza.com

Stuart Faromarz Batchelor

ARTIST: The project was launched in collaboration with Stuart in 2020

Stuart Faromarz Batchelor is a London-based painter and computer artist who combines traditional media with custom software to create still, moving and installation work to explore visual phenomena and the relationship between maths, nature and our perception of meaning.

www.sfbatchelor.com

NYX

MUSICIANS: Commissioned to make a soundscape for Shemza Digital: Across Generations exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery 2023

NYX is a collaborative drone choir and otherworldly electric chorus, re-embodying live electronics and extended vocal techniques. Using organic and modulated collective voice, they create ecstatic sonic landscapes, punctuated with acoustic glitching, polyphonic overtone and electric textures.

NYX have worked with and been commissioned by Gazelle Twin, Vessel & Rakhi Singh, Holy Other & Pedro Maia, Hatis Noit, Sigur Rós, Laura Misch, LCY, Belinda Zhawi, Do.Om Yoga, Dan Tobin Smith, Nick Cobby, Rosie Hastings & Hannah Quinlan, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Deeper Into Movies, Arts Council England, PRS Foundation, Southbank Centre, Centre Pompidou, Rewire Festival, Supersonic Festival, London Design Festival, Alighieri (London Fashion Week, QEII Design Award) and many more.

https://www.nyx-edc.com/

Petit Oiseau

MUSICIANS: Commissioned to make a soundscape for Shemza Digital: Across Generations exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery 2023

Indian Classical player Jatinder Singh Durhailay's graceful mastery of the three hundred year old dilruba breaks new ground in contemporary music with the aid of experimental musician Suren Seneviratne's ambient synthesiser etudes performed with the rare EMU XL-7 workstation. Custom programmed sound-patches dance in curious rhythms alongside Singh's deeply evocative sitar-like wails that hark back to Northern India of many centuries ago.

https://www.petitoiseautune.com/

Peter Todd

ARTIST / PROGRAMMER: Collaborator on artworks #4, #7 & #8 and creator if the virtual exhibition