Sacha Jafri

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Iranian/Indian with French Heritage, works and lives in London and New York  with his wife Lucy and daughter Talia Love.

Having graduated from Eton College in 1995,The Kent Institute of Art and Design in 1996, a first class honours Master of Arts Degree Oxford University in 1999, Sacha Jafri BA MA with sell-out shows throughout Europe,America,Russia,The Middle East,Asia and The Far East,is now considered to be one of the world’s leading young painters . 2008 saw Sacha Jafri as the youngest artist in history to be offered a Museum-Based 10year Retrospective World Tour which opened in 2008 at the recently renovated ‘Sharjah Museum of Modern and Islamic Art’ and now at 32 he is widely considered one of the top young painters on the world scene. Having pipped Damien Hirst to top spot in an auction last year in London and having just finished an unprecedented world tour sell out show with a lost Andy Warhol collection entitled ‘Jafri meets Warhol’ he has recently been described by the Financial and New York Times as ‘a shrewd investment who’s prices are set to soar!’ – and with recent commissions to paint the official paintings to celebrate the careers of: David Beckham, Sachin Tendulkah, Brian Lara,Lewis Hamilton,John McEnroe,Darcy Bussel,Andrew Flintoff,Ryan Giggs,Roger Federer,Mohammed Ali and Tiger Woods it is easy to see why Sacha is often described as an unquestionably important painter in the history of art, a true zeitgeist of his time.

December 2009 sees Sacha exhibited in a retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy – London, entitled ‘Indian Greats’ which includes: Raza, MF Husain, Kapoor and Sacha. – hosted by Tanya Baxter Contemporaries.

Sacha’s original paintings now regularly fetch between -$450-750,000 (American Dollars) with his Artist’s Proofs going for as much as $85,000 and his recent painting entitled ‘Beckham-a celebration’ being re-valued this year at 1.4million dollars.With clients such as:Kevin Spacey,Sir Terence Conran, Goldie Hawn, George Clooney, Jude Law, Bill Gates, Sir Philip Green, Madonna, Sir Tim Rice, Kate Moss, Sir Michael Parkinson, David Beckham, Ricky Ponting, Lewis Hamilton, Jemima Goldsmith,The Ruling Maktoum and Al-Qassimi families of The UAE,The Sultan of Brunei, Leonardo De’Caprio, Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince William, Leona Lewis, Sir Clive Woodward, Lord Jeffrey Archer, Lord Beckwith, Sir Alex Ferguson, Roger Federer, Sophie Dahl, Sir Steve Redgrave OBE, and Sienna Miller, it is no wonder that the BBC,The Art News Paper and The Financial Times have picked Sacha as ‘the YBA to bring back painting to the forefront of British Art and finally put Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin in the shade’.

Sacha has now personally raised over 6.5million GBP pounds with his works for various charitable causes world-wide over the last 5yrs.And this year he has been given the honour of judging the ‘Freedom to Create’ prize as well as the extreme honour of being invited to become a 21st Century Leader, other such luminaries include:Dame Vivienne Westwood,Sir Paul Smith,Sir Roger Moore,Sir Bob Geldof,Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu,George Clooney, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Paul McCartney.

This year Sacha has been commissioned to paint:A collaborative work with Usain Bolt,Tiger Woods,Ronaldo,Roger Federer and Michael Phelps to officially celebrate the achievements of the 5 greatest sportsmen from the first decade of the new millennium, a commission from Disney to paint and a sculpt a life size Elephant for the plinth at Trafalgar Square, the Official painting to celebrate 100yrs of Ashes Cricket History, a live painting created in conjunction with an on stage live performance from Stevie Wonder, the Official London Olympic painting for London2012, a live painting celebrating Qatar, the Children of ROTA and The Islamic Museum at HH Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani and HE Sheikha al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani’s ‘Reach Out To Asia’ Gala Dinner, an unprecedented commission from FIFA celebrating Sir Alex Ferguson’s extraordinary achievements with Manchester United Football Club, a commission from Barbara Broccoli to create the painting to launch the latest Bond film,A live painting created at the Royal Albert Hall in front of a 5,000 strong audience, a commission from George Clooney to launch his latest film on Darfur ‘Sand and Sorrow’ live at the Monaco Film Festival, and perhaps most importantly, a commission to paint the 22 most influential living Muslims including such luminaries as: Mohammed Ali, Zinedine Zidane, Baraq Obama (honorary Muslim),Yusuf Islam, HRH Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum of Dubai, HRH Sheikh Khalifa Al Nahyan ruler of the UAE,HH Prince Alwaleed AlSaud,Omar Sharif,Shah Rukh Khan,HRH The Emir of Qatar and his Consort HRH Sheikha Mozah,HRH King Abdullah of Jordan, Don Cheadle, HRH Princess Haya, HRH Queen Rainia of Jordan, Imran Khan, HRH Sheikh Dr.Sultan Al Qassimi, HE Sheikha Lubna Al-Qassimi amongst others.

As the first artist to ever feature on the front cover of the Financial Times magazine and with up and coming shows in:Abu Dhabi,New York,London’s Royal Academy, Dubai, Berlin, Miami, Basel,Vienna, Moscow, Sharjah and Singapore, Sacha Jafri is certainly – ‘The One to Watch!’

Large scale, bright, lyrical, narrative based canvases inspired from his dreams and his Persian, French and Indian background. Now highly collected and acclaimed, his work sees him as the pioneer of ‘Magical Realism’.

Sacha’s latest collection, entitled:‘The Middle East before Oil’ will see him visit over 15 Middle Eastern countries over the next 18months where he aims to capture the unique soul and spirit of the people of that particular region of the world.With our tendency to group the ‘Middle East’ together and treat the places and their people as one, Sacha aims to re-identify the distinct and highly diverse individuality of each region and their people and delve into how the indigenous people relate to their past,present and future as well as how they feel they as individuals fit into or stand out from the wider category of the Middle East.With rapid development effecting the heritage and identity of the indigenous people this project seems both poignant and necessary.

With a world moving so fast (particularly in areas with valuable natural resources to tap into) Sacha feels that the people can often get left behind. He hopes with this collection that he will be able to re-capture the individual’s identity and offer an insight into their unique sense of:place,history,belonging, identity and future, as well as capture the soul and spirit of each particular region and its people.

In each region 2x large scale oil on canvas paintings will be created as well as one very special vast canvas with the special needs children of that particular country; Sacha hopes that this will be particularly revealing as he believes that it is our children who are the true barometer to the pulse, spirit and truth of a country.They offer an unhindered, uncorrupted and untainted insight into what is truly at our core with the unique advantage of having no agendas as well as an inspiring, free-flowing honesty, and therefore offering us an exact unfiltered translation and pure representation of fact and feeling – as they truly and simply ‘see it’; unaffected by knowledge and expectation. Sacha will visit over 15 countries within the region (including war-torn areas such as: Iraq,Afghanistan, Gaza, Iran, Lebanon etc etc) to build his new collection which will then be exhibited as part of a world tour visiting over 11 countries in over 5 regions of the world. His ‘Children’s Paintings’ will be auctioned by Christies where the money raised will go towards helping impoverished and war-torn children in need across the globe but particularly in Africa and India and the Special Needs Children of the Middle East and Asia.

Sacha Jafri’s ‘PRIVATE COLLECTION’ made up of 28 hand-selected pieces from his last 7 collections including his brand new collection entitled ‘Universe of the Child’ from 1997-2009 will be shown together for the first time at Dubai’s Cuadro Gallery March2010, it will then travel to Caprice-Horne in Berlin, London’s Royal Academy, New York, Miami,Vienna and Moscow and finally to Hong Kong and Singapore towards the end of 2011.