Zaira Shariff is an emerging painter from Hyderabad, India, now based in Toronto. Drawing from personal experience and the lives of those around her, she explores themes of identity, belonging, and cultural memory. She incorporates traditional Indian art techniques into her paintings and often weaves language into her work, using Urdu, Hindi, Telugu, and English to reflect the layered realities of diasporic life. Zaira enjoys experimenting with diverse materials and is currently expanding her visual language through digital media, exploring new ways to express her evolving artistic voice.
MOOR
Acrylic on canvas, 24" x 36”, 2025
MOOR This painting explores the emotional terrain of migration and the ambiguity of belonging. As someone who moved across continents, I often feel suspended between worlds,no longer fully rooted in the place I left, yet not entirely at home in the one I have come to. At the center is a peacock in motion, embodying the tension of life in between. Its strained posture reflects the emotional weight of displacement, while its forward movement speaks to resilience and the ongoing search for belonging. The open beak, caught mid scream, echoes the unrest and urgency that often accompany these transitions. This work is also a personal reflection on voice and agency. I have come to believe that speaking up, whether about identity, injustice, or the need for change, is essential. It is through voicing discomfort that we move toward healing. In the quiet space between cultures and countries, I have found a kind of strength, not in resolution, but in movement, in holding contradictions, and in the hope that growth is possible even in uncertainty.
Pile
Watercolour, A2, 2025
This painting captures a corner of my space during a time of transition. The pile of cleaning supplies, boxes, and everyday items tells the quiet story of settling in,of arriving in a new place, unsure of what is temporary and what will stay. Each object reflects a step in building a new life: things bought out of necessity, stacked without order, waiting for belonging. In this mess, I found meaning. It represents the in between of migration, where identity forms not all at once, but slowly, in the corners we often overlook.
