Shoufay Derz is a Sydney based artist whose practice reflects on the corporeal experience of the unknown, by examining how absence can be revealed in marks of presence. Depart without return featured in the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart curated by Nick Mitzevich and was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia. Derz has been the recipient of numerous awards, residencies and grants including two Australia Council grants. In 2003 she won the prestigious 52nd Blake Prize for Religious Art for her mysterious and abstract photographic series Linking back. She has exhibited her works widely, both throughout Australia and abroad, held solo exhibitions at Artereal Gallery, Sydney; Delmar gallery, Sydney and Gallery 4a, Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Sydney.

Her work has been included in major group exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art (shanghai), OCTA Museum of Contemporary Art (Shenzhen) and The Esplanade (Singapore). Derz is undertaking a Phd at Sydney College of Arts, University of Sydney and holds a Masters of Fine Arts by research (Media Arts) at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. Since 2008 she has lectured in Photomedia at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW and currently teaches Photography and Art History at Sydney institute of TAFE.