Born in 1982, India, to a Hindu father and a Muslim mother, Zoya always had a unique perspective of seeing things from most around her. From very early in life it was clear that she would pursue visual arts as a career. As a student of Applied arts in Sophia Shree Basant Kumar Somani Memorial college, Zoya was nominated for several students awards, the most prestigious one being the international IBDAA awards, in the print advertising category. After completeing BFA (Applied arts) Zoya worked for a few years as a visual artist. Parallely she also pursued her interests in theatre and acted and designed for several theatre productions from 1998 onwards. She moved base from Mumbai to Dehli in 2007 and then to Singapore in 2011.

Working as a freelance visual designer in Singapore, Zoya started experimenting with painting, sketching, mixed media art in her process of self-exploration. Gradually she developed her own style of painting. Her works largely questions boundaries and distinctions — such as those between social classes, genders, political leanings in the realms of society and culture.
Zoya’s current body of works is an amalgamation of all that she has gathered from her various experiences.

Artist Statement
A society is a complex structure being constantly influenced by multiple elements such as politics, religion, media, development, history and technology. I have been interested in the inter relation of these aspects and how these influence or impact the other and what we end up loosing in the process gaining the other. I have been influenced by images and imagery that surround me and often recreate them as symbols to reflect on a subject or to state the obvious.