Indian Artist Kanak Shashi was born in 1980 in Indore, India. Today, she is currently living and working in New Delhi, India where she specialises in Mixed Media and Painting. In 2002 she earned a B.F.A. from Faculty of Fine Arts Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara, Gujarat, India. In 2004 Kanak earned an M.F.A. from the same institution. Her works have been featured in group exhibitions in India:
Group Exhibitions
2010
Drifters, Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, India
2009
Drifters, Art Konsult, New Delhi, India
Multitudes, Zen Art Studio, Cochin, India
Multitudes, Max Muller Bhawan, Bangalore, India
2006
PACHIMARI, Camp I & II, Lanxess ABS, Vadodara, India
She says,
“It is always difficult for me to speak or write about my work in words. I would rather love that my work speaks for itself. But if given a choice to express, I would say I love painting women and I celebrate womanhood through my paintings. I feel that with this, I am defining or evolving my own womanhood. My painting works at different levels – one very personal, the other very pictorial and painterly.
Since socially, I have not lived my life as a woman for almost 26 years, now that I am in my true body I feel completely at home, and each new experience and feeling makes me celebrate my womanhood. Perhaps being placed in a wrong body has inspired me to think and explore the woman image beyond the conventional horizons.
There is no fixed definition of ‘woman’ or ‘womanhood’, yet somewhere we all define it for ourselves… And that is what I am doing – living life through painting…
While painting ‘woman’, the most painted subject in human history, one realizes that most of these images celebrate the female figure as an object of desire for men. In fact, the stereotypes are so predominant that many a time, even female painters tend to represent woman through the male gaze. That’s why one of my intentions is to crack this mould of the pretty, submissive, persona-less image of women, in which each move and gesture of theirs is controlled in such a way that they come out as a mere sex object.
I choose a language which is very close to illustration, and I think representing woman in contrast light – a known and accepted language is a better choice. When I look out for references I find the work of Paula Rego, the Portuguese painter, very unusual. In there lies a very simple story telling technique to reach out to the viewer; but more than that – we both share similar subject matter and concern. I feel awed by her mastery in dealing with woman as a subject in her painting and illustrations.
My other favourite works are those of Elain De Kooning and Cindy Sherman.
I always wanted to paint my female figures strong, powerful and independent. To achieve these characters I used various pictorial elements, like lighting, use of bold strokes and distortion of certain parts of body, and putting less emphasis on others. While working on figures, I try to find and focus on the area where I feel lies the most strength and also the maximum vulnerability. Figures in my work generally take up most of the picture plane and vary from life-size to larger.
More importantly, my effort is always towards capturing a frozen moment, which I can see as an inner existential state coming through. I try capturing different states of female mind, mood and try to emphasize on distinct elements of their character. I let the facial expression, composition, color and other pictorial elements convey to the viewer, the mood I intended to portray/capture.
In my earlier paintings, I gave all the importance only to the main figure, and kept the background silent. Now I have started introducing new elements into the painting – origami birds, cats, plants and movement in the background. Even friends and people have started to come in now, which gives me more challenge to keep my stands firm, in context of seeing woman in a frame shared with man. Also, placing man and woman together in the frame brings up interesting interaction and conflicts.
It is very interesting to work on such paintings where one wants to give equal importance to both the figures; but to make this balance one could end up with too many new elements in the painting. That is why, in my painting process, it is very important for me that I conceive the figures and their position in the beginning, while the rest is achieved during the process. This approach is not only a lot of fun because of the element of dynamicity involved, but it also leaves me with the ability to surprise my own self!”
Please enjoy the work images of Kanak Shashi!
"Silent Argument", acrylic on canvas, 3 x 4 feet, 2009
"Altering Histories", acrylic on digital print, 2 x 3 feet, 2009
"God Mother", acrylic on canvas, 3 x 4 feet, 2007
"Altering Histories 4", acrylic on digital print, 2 x 3 feet, 2009
