Prabha Shah

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Biography:

Prabha Shah has been a valuable member of the contemporary Indian art world for almost five decades. Born in 1947, she discovered painting as a young girl and immediately welcomed it into her life as a calming and communicative presence. She spent her early education at the Government Lady Noyce School for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind in New Delhi, learning in the context of speech and hearing impairment. She later studied painting informally at the Kanoria Mahila Mahavidyalaya in Jaipur as a student of Canadian artist Bill Wheaton, and at the University of Udaipur as a student of P. N. Choyal. She continues to paint as a freelance artist at the Triveni Kala Sangam in New Delhi under the guidance of Rameshwar Broota. She has held fellowships at the Department of Culture, Government of India, and the Lalit Kala Academy in New Delhi from the 1970s through the 2000s, earning several awards during that same time. From the 1960s through the present day, she has exhibited her work in solo and group shows. Her paintings are on display in the collections of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Cabinet Secretariat, and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.

Throughout her career, Shah has created surreal and nuanced odes to the rural and urban landscapes in which she has lived. She embraces a set of earthly motifs - stones and sky, doorways and windows, water and sand - that emphasize the role nature has played in her development as an artist. Her work is imbued with subtle color transitions, surprising textures, and a confidence that can only come from years of practice. She can be followed through her Facebook page.

For inquiries about all available art, please contact Not Just Art.

Artwork:

  1. Edge of Evening - Oil on Canvas, 42x42”. This piece, when observed carefully tells several stories in the windows of each block; all interconnected but separated by an ominous blue.

  2. Three Skies (2011) - Oil on canvas, 40x40" [available]. Three cityscapes, extending across the bottom, left, and right edges of the paintings. A cloudy green-gray-red sky stretches between the three. (#PRSH001)

  3. The Flight Home (2014) - Oil on canvas, 40x40” [available]. White birds and yellow smudges float against a cloudy blue background. The lower right corner glows yellow. Two red chairs and the edge of a table disappear behind a fold in the sky’s fabric. (#PRSH002)

  4. Gathering Storm (2011) - Oil on canvas, 40x40" [b]. A house blends into a gray and white cloudy sky, with pink plants extending upward from the bottom of the painting. A ray of light shines from the sky down onto the house. (#PRSH003)

  5. Frozen Tales (2008) - Oil on canvas, 24x24" [sold]. An abstract composition of tiles floors, peeling paint, and architectural columns that blend into a faded red background. (#PRSH004)

  6. A Moment Suspended in Time (2012) - Oil on canvas, 40x40” [available]. Light blue rectangles rest on a dusty green background, blended by thin horizontal and vertical lines like fabric weave. (#PRSH005)

  7. Passion Colours Everything (2014) - Oil on canvas, 40x60” [available]. A yellow and gray sky above a red and green landscape. A fragmented path leads to a flat building on the horizon. (#PRSH006)

  8. Joyful Spirit (2013) - Oil on canvas, 40x40” [available]. A dusty green building descends into a clay colored path, which extends into a rippling blue pool. Red and pink flower petals fall from the path into the pool. (#PRSH007)

  9. Autumn’s Aura (2015) - Oil on canvas, 40x40” [available]. Yellow, green, and red textures arranged in a grid, blending into a yellow rectangle at the bottom of the painting. (#PRSH008)

  10. Steps Across Time (2008) - Oil on canvas, 60x30" [available]. A small structure is surrounded by brown and gold. Small fragmented steps lead down to a red rectangle at the bottom of the painting, which contains multicolored diamonds. (#PRSH009)

  11. Water Hyacinth (2009) - Oil on canvas, 40x40" [sold]. Pastel colored hyacinths float on and above a rippling body of water. The water, the sky, and the hyacinths share a dusty red/brown/pink color palette. (#PRSH010)

Press: