Syeda Hera Shakoor is a visual artist from Islamabad, holding her expertise in Painting with distinction from National College of Arts (2012). She is also a concept artist, art consultant and an interior designer.She has worked with numerous prestigious organizations like WWF (World Wildlife Fund), Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and AAP (Actionaid Pakistan) as an artist and provided consultancy to them over various projects. Other than the amazing works that she has made in her career, she has also done some masterpiece art projects for Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) office building in Islamabad Pakistan, Bahawalpur Haveli and Army Public School and College (APSAC).
At present she is a head of Fine Arts Department at a local arts institute in Rawalpindi and is also serving as a visual arts instructor (Department of Fine Arts) at National College of Arts Rawalpindi campus.
She also owns her personal brand named of ‘Hera's Art Zone’ based in Islamabad with the mantra ‘Lets spread the Colors’. Art Zone by Syeda Hera Shakoor is basically an art and craft studio, an art gallery and an institute to nurture the young artists where you will find her as a full time studio artist.
Moreover Hera has always had a practice of supporting and mentoring youngsters to become artists. She enjoys teaching the youngsters who plan to develop their career path in the field of arts. She is particular about it, competitive, and is also very generous with her own time and energy.
Hera Shakoor has been a teacher most of the time and she is constantly engaged in new work. She is really interested in other people’s work and that has manifested in working with young people, as well as holding training and coaching sessions for emerging artists. Her training has made many youngsters step into prestigious art and design institutions of Pakistan that includes 'National College of Arts (NCA)', 'Beaconhouse National University (BNU)', 'National University of Sciences and Technology - School of Architecture and Design (NUST)', 'COMSATS University', 'Foundation University' and 'Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design (PIFD)'.
Artist Statement:
My work is about few characters and these are inspired by myself. Actually my characters are unaware of themselves. They exhibit the non-identity of an individual without the limitation of space and time. I also disregard vanity by neglecting the norms society uses as a symbol of beauty. While doing the portraits I paint my mirror image bald and without facial hair. For this I use oil paints on paper and then on canvas.
