Shafaq Ahmad was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She left Pakistan at age 20 and lived in the United Kingdom, Iran and Denmark before settling down in the United States.

She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 1991 and a Master of Fine Art degree from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas in 2011. Ahmad worked as an art glass designer from 1995 to 2003 and collaborated with several art glass studios in Czech Republic and Sweden. Her art glass designs are in private collections in many countries.

Presently, she works as a multimedia artist. She paints, and also works in 3D, digital media and mixed media to express her vision. Ahmad is an international artist and has won many awards for her work. She has participated in many prestigious international exhibitions. Her work is a part of permanent collections at the Madi Museum of Geometric Art in Dallas, Texas, Mercedes Benz Corporate Headquarters in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Brookhaven College in Dallas, Texas and North Lake College in Irving, Texas.

The message of multicultural awareness is central in Ahmad’s work. In her work she is intrigued and inspired by mysticism, which is to believe in the all-encompassing unity of the Creator. This belief influences both the conceptual and formal aspects of her work. Her mystical thought manifests in the physical reality of the work as it relates to our existence in the Universe. It attempts to convey the realization and acceptance of people of diverse backgrounds and cultures and bridge the disparity to convey the message of sameness and equality.

The universal aspect of being the threads of the same human fabric is expressed through the artistic process of repetition, layering, adding, subtracting and mark making. The process involves intuition, experimentation and decisions made at subconscious level. The process of repetitive calligraphic text applied in layers is deeply meditative. She uses the ancient Arabic text and presents it in a contemporary context to make it an inclusive experience. It is an encounter between East and West with the intention of putting together of image that is capable of having a wide appeal. One does not need to know the Arabic text to derive pleasure from its lyrical calligraphic marks, but what the viewer is invited to do is to explore the different realities presented that could be defined as intercultural or multicultural.