Iftikhar Jaffar

Iftikhar Jaffar is a distinguished Kashmiri artist, educator, and creative practitioner whose career spans over four decades. Born and raised in Srinagar, Kahmir, a place deeply rooted in artistic tradition, he developed an early connection with art through his surroundings. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Kashmir in 1986, securing first position in Fine Arts, laying the foundation for a lifelong engagement with painting, photography, and applied art.

In the narrow, timeworn lanes of Zadibal—where art is not taught but quietly inherited—his relationship with creation was never formal or distant. Surrounded by a lineage of makers and craftsmen, he absorbed the rhythm of making almost instinctively. Art for him was never a pursuit. It was a presence, something remembered rather than discovered.

In 1988, he returned to the Institute of Music & Fine Arts, University of Kashmir as a lecturer in Applied Art beginning a journey that would span more than three decades. Over the years he served as Head of the Department, shaping not only academic structures but generations of artists across the Valley. His role extended beyond teaching he became a quiet guide nurturing ways of seeing, thinking and creating.

Alongside his academic career, he worked as Chief Visualiser at Focus Advertising Agency and remained deeply engaged in photography since the early 1980s. His work has been exhibited widely including participation in exhibitions by Lalit Kala Akademi and international showcases in Damascus and Switzerland. His works are part of significant institutional and private collections in India and abroad.

At the core of his artistic language lies a contemplative pursuit—drawing from Sufi thought, poetry and the spiritual traditions of Kashmir. Influenced by artists such as Ganesh Pyne and Joan Miró, his work explores the space between the visible and the intangible, where abstraction becomes a medium for reflection rather than representation.

After dedicating 36 years to teaching, he retired in 2024. Yet for someone whose life has been inseparable from art, this moment marked not an end, but a continuation. The same year, he founded HunarGaah in Srinagar—a space envisioned as a living, evolving community where artists come together to learn, share, and grow.

This is not the story of a man who chose art. It is the story of someone who simply could not step away from it.