Turning into an established, internationally acclaimed artist is not an easy task. India, like any other country in the world, has its fair share of emerging artists who exhibit rare talents and abilities to work with multiple media.
The following is a list of emerging Indian visual artists. None of them are limited to the canvas, having experimented with dozens of media and techniques. They have presented solo exhibitions, won awards, and had their work showcased at international art galleries.
Dheer Kaku
He started as a painter but developed an interest in long-exposure photography, digital media, and many other forms of art. Deeply interested in the theme of the “relationship between the mind and the body,” Kaku is an independent visual artist who resides and practices in Goa.
Born to graphic designer parents who managed an advertising firm, Kaku got interested in prints and designs at an early age. His desire to explore a variety of media and express himself through visual arts led him to join the Rachana Sansad Academy of Fine Arts and Crafts, where he trained to become a painter.
He has worked with many artists, dabbled in cinematography, and exhibited his paintings at various places.
Bhaskar Rao
An award-winning landscape artist residing in Hyderabad, Bhaskar Rao is fascinated with trees.
He spent his childhood in Salur in Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh and developed an interest in art in his early days, an interest that continued to grow and develop. He started learning art when he was 10 years old and drew and painted in school. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree at Andhra University and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree at the Hyderabad Central University.
Rao works in his studio for up to six hours daily and enjoys experimenting with various media. He derives motivation and inspiration from giving several solo exhibitions and attending art camps, workshops, and seminars. He is greatly inspired by the works of Van Gogh and John Constable.
Anirban Sheth
This emerging artist focuses on current issues and highlights them in his work. He loves experimenting with several media and paints effortlessly on vellum and leather, both surfaces that require patience, expertise, and talent. He uses not only paintbrushes but also his fingers to create his works of art, often decorating them with silver and gold foil to create breathtakingly beautiful visual effects.
Born in 1976, Anirban Sheth received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Government College of Art & Craft. Having started painting at the young age of 16, Anirban has won multiple awards and given twenty solo exhibitions of his art both in India and abroad.
Pradip Sengupta
Born in West Bengal, Pradip Sengupta showed an interest in art right from childhood, which is why his family wasn’t surprised when he decided to build a career in art. He got his Master’s degree in Fine Arts at Visva Bharati University, Shantiniketan and then ventured into the world to produce his highly imaginative paintings, inspired by the images he saw in real life.
He says that he is heavily inspired by the world around him. His paintings, as he puts it, are the images of the world as he sees them. His experiences inspired him to develop a visual language, through which he expresses his reactions to various life situations.
Swati Kale
Most of Swati’s works feature beautiful flowers. Her works are expressions of her thoughts, dreams, and memories, featuring distinct knife strokes that form unique features of her art. She considers flowers to be innocent and pure manifestations of nature while simultaneously being symbols of energy and sentiments.
Swati Kale has won awards at painting contests organized by the Pune-based Rohan Builders and the Art 2 Day Gallery at its Women’s Day camp.
Jayshree P Malimath
Deeply inspired by Indian life and culture, Jayshree Malimath started painting at a young age. Most of her works feature expressive faces, bright colours, wide-open eyes, and curly hair. Her colour combinations are visually pleasing, and her art is both classical and subtle at the same time. The overall effect of her paintings is happiness.
Priyesh Trivedi
A Mumbai-based visual artist, Priyesh Trivedi has attracted a lot of attention from art enthusiasts all over India for his series titled, “Adarsh Balak,” a critique and parody of the educational posters used in Indian schools of the eighties and nineties. A ToonSkool graduate in animation, Trivedi has worked at several Mumbai-based animation studios.
Trivedi is also fond of retro gaming. He says that his experiences as a game artist and designer helped him to understand why Mario became a popular cultural icon and also to create the character of Adarsh Balak, which later developed into a brand.
Madhu Das
A graduate of the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru, Madhu Das was more interested in finding a place where he could paint. Realizing that working in a studio was not his cup of tea, he found an odd place for painting—an old and unused water tank in Chitradurga, 150km from Bengaluru.
Having broken free from the limits of a studio, Das started pondering on the limitations of human existence and people’s relationship with the spaces around them. He is known for his photo documentation on a variety of subjects.
Shwetha Bhattad
Noted for the way she uses art to create social change, Shwetha Bhattad aims to give a voice to the voiceless through her art.
She considers her art as a manifestation of truth and uses it liberally to fight for a variety of causes such as farmer welfare, women’s education, and others. Through her project titled, “I Have a Dream,” she addresses the problem of decreasing farmland all over the world.
Bhattad opines that art cannot be confined to the limits of a gallery. According to her, art that succeeds in stepping out of galleries has a greater power to reach out to the masses and create the desired social change.
Hemali Bhuta
Born to an architect mother and a civil engineer father, Hemali Bhuta started pondering on space from an early age. Her parents helped her to develop an eye for detail and a keen sense of design. But she says that she has also learned a lot from her husband who can design interiors better than her without working with set stencils.
“Measure of a Foot,” a solo exhibition she presented in Mumbai, reflects the impact of human beings on our landscape. Bhuta likes exploring concepts related to geology, materiality, markets, ruins and excavation, gestures, failure, exhibition, navigation, and others.
She is greatly admired for her ability to use unusual materials to create unique sculptures.