Shashi Bikram Shah

Place: Kathmandu

Born: 1940

Biography:

Shashi Shah, also known as Shashi Bikram Shah, is a Nepali artist born in Kathmandu in 1940. He is regarded as one of the preeminent contemporary artists of Nepal and one of the country's first modernist painters, with a career spanning five decades. Shah's lifelong fascination with art matured in the 1960s while studying at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai, where he got introduced to works of impressionists and surrealists. His paintings continuously aim to capture the world’s suffering, often based on myths from Hindu puranas and drawing from the Dashavatar, the ten primary incarnations of Vishnu. Shah's works are often a metaphor for the Kalki avatar of Vishnu, who in Hindu iconography is depicted riding a horse, representing the duality of and the dialectics between suffering and salvation. He is also known for his depiction of horses and his draftsmanship and sculptures. Shah was an active member of SKIB'71, the first modernist art collective in Nepal, and a founder member and principal of the Sirjana College of Fine Arts in Kathmandu.