Kanika Shah

Born 1987 | Baroda, Gujarat

​2010 MVA, Graphics, MS University, Baroda
2008 BVA, Painting, MS University, Baroda

I competed my Bachelors in Painting and Masters in Printmaking which have really helped me to explore different mediums. I began working with traditional techniques, and then started to involve new media, such as digital print. I have tried to explore the possibilities involved in working with two different mediums, one that has been used over centuries and another which is relatively new. Presently I am enjoying the process of working with watercolour and mixed medias. The recent works ‘Cherry blossom’ and ‘Me & Red’ I have varied by using pen work, watercolour, stitching, collage, beads, and rice paper. 
In my works, one can see the inner world, perspectives and aspirations which I reveal by inserting simple objects such as a train, flowers, numbers, buildings, words, and clouds. By using simplistic elements I convey my experiences, using words repeatedly, I create patterns. The elements such as floating clouds which are the fleeting personas of people around me, who are present yet unstable. Later they become balloons, flying above as I look at them, climb on to them and transit, to another environment where adjusting takes both space and time. 
I see the world through my eyes, my pleasures and displeasures. Each of my work has a story to tell. They narrate a journey from the artist’s soul to the world outside, from the memories of childhood to youth to a deeper understanding that is derived from age and experience. Afflicted by the problems that are faced each and every day by me, as a woman, I paint the range of emotions that I exchange with these subjects from sorrow to joy, from suffering to hope.

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Me & Red I, 2015
Watercolour and penwork on paper
8 x 5.5 inches