Shalina Vichitra

Shalina Vichitra (born 1973) completed her BFA and MFA from College of Art, New Delhi. She is a recipient of the Human Resource Development Scholarship (Govt. of India) and a gold medallist in her MFA at the College of Art, Delhi. She has had exceptional group and solo shows with galleries in India and abroad which include - ‘Topographies of the Self’ at Anant Art and at Art Motif, New Delhi. Shalina also has been invited to participate in several curated exhibitions in India and abroad such as ‘Negotiating Matters’ curated by Roobina Karode, ‘Summer’ curated by Peter Nagy at Nature Morte, New Delhi ‘Emerging India’ at Royal College London; ‘Who Do You Think I Am’ at The Gallery at Cork Street, London; ‘Contemporary Indian Art’ at Mueller and Plate, Munich, Germany; ’Resonance’ at the Lalit Kala Academy; ‘Prayers for the Earth’, an onsite project, supported by Intach in Ladakh and ‘A Thousand white Flags’ supported by the India Art Fair ; ’Contemporary Indian Art’ at the Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi; ’Grain’ at Gallery Espace, New Delhi to name just a few. Shalina also has participated in the Fusing Barn Biennale - Taiwan and has been part of numerous art camps and workshops. Shalina continues to work with acrylics and mixed media, holding shows in India and abroad.

She lives in Gurugram, Haryana.

‘I believe that creative thinking and the practice of art-making enhances one's overall life experience. Just as every individual is unique, so is their art. I love watching people figure things out - the surprise on their faces, the joy of discovery, the satisfaction of a new experience, even the frustration of a challenge. My aim is to nurture the creative spark in everyone, regardless of age or ability and to explore and enjoy the process of art-making. I wish that every student finds as much joy in art as I do.”

Metaphors for her imagery come from the earth - aerial mappings, the urban sprawl, constructed spaces, maps, geographic images, symbols and architectural plans. Shalina likes to engage in constructing and deconstructing, positioning and de-positioning, locating and dislocating. As she peels layers, new associations give rise to experiential spaces on her canvasses. Shalina Vichitra’s paintings function as visceral geographical annotations and recordings that employ the tools of cartography to address the complex subject of belonging and the fragile balance between the natural world and human habitation. Underlining her practice are moments of movement, of journeying through paths and routes, across or within boundaries with the suggestion of an alternative possibility. Her work thus, serves as an abstract renderings of a concrete reality. Her oeuvre is about addressing, experiencing, and decoding characteristics of living situations. Personal associations, emotions, existence, identities become part of larger issues that address conflict and contradictions of urban living situations and a constant struggle to decode reality and ‘the other reality’. The individual is a part of a whole populace and the entity she refers to resides within this macrocosm. One of the most unusual works is her Prayer Bells series - installations where she has replaced the surface of the prayer bells with her painted landscapes. We traverse these as we turn them: setting in motion thoughts over territory, psychology over physicality.

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