Zahura Sultana
Zahura Sultana is a London based artist who was born in 1952 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has spent most of her life in London, where she now feels rooted and at home. Her childhood life was transient. Her father was an engineer in the army, who was posted to different cities and countries every two years. She remembers fondly of the upbringing she had, but also remembers that there was discipline and order in the home. This allowed no room for creativity or artistic influences in Zahura’s life, and her schools had echoed the same stance. Her parents had objected to an art profession for her. Later it was also discouraged by her husband. Life and responsibilities took over, so it was only at the age of forty that she got the opportunity to pursue art.
Zahura Sultana has graduated with a BA Fine Art at UCA Farnham, an MA Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Arts (UAL), and a Foundation in Art Psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton.
To read Zahura Sultana’s CV, click here.
Zahura Sultana is an abstract painter who explores emotions, her inner landscapes, and the concept of time. Her practice explores feelings of the insecurity, anxiety and restlessness. These emotions were caused by constant uprooting during her childhood and experience of motherhood.
She uses various tools such as brushes, palette knives, and household appliances (like spatulas and squeegees) to apply and rework marks on the canvas. Brushstrokes are applied with force, vigour and energy. She scrapes, removes and disturbs the surface on the canvas for it to be only reconstructed again through the application of more layers.
Zahura is currently experimenting with charcoal sketches of flowers in her home. There is something about the way flowers curl and transform in the later part of their life that fascinates the artist. From there, she selectively transfers particularly ‘emotive’ lines and shapes from these drawings onto the canvas. She may revisit this experimental work whilst painting her ‘final’ pieces, which tend to be made more spontaneously and intuitively.
Domestic imagery and objects occasionally feature in Zahura’s work, a metaphor for domesticity and her experience of motherhood. Through flowers and vessels, she explores various feelings like sorrow, sadness, anger, and hope (for reconciliation).