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Nataraj Sharma

Nataraj Sharma is a multimedia artist whose creative journey spans installation, painting, and digital art. In his art, Nataraj Sharma focuses on the industrial landscape and the various objects that populate that environment. His innovative approach to art earned him the prestigious Sotheby's Best Emerging Artist award in 1993, setting the stage for his impactful career.

Biography of Nataraj Sharma

Nataraj Sharma was born in 1958 in Mysore, India, and spent his formative years in Egypt, England, and Zambia. He completed his studies in Applied Art at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, graduating in 1982.

In 2006, Nataraj Sharma participated in an artist residency program hosted by the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) in Singapore.

Nataraj Sharma has held several notable solo exhibitions throughout his career, showcasing his diverse artistic talents and unique perspectives. Some of his prominent solo exhibitions include: "Airshow" at Bodhi Art, Singapore, which took place in 2008-09, "Work In Progress" at Bodhi Space, Mumbai, in 2008, "Stretch," exhibited at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute and Bodhi Art in Singapore, Mumbai, and New York in 2007, "Flight," which was showcased at Art and Public in Geneva, as well as Bodhi Art in Mumbai in 2007, "Nataraj Sharma: Vapi Horse and Other Stories" at Nature Morte, New Delhi, in 2005. 

Nataraj Sharma's Art Style

Sharma's artistic style is characterized by its ability to seamlessly traverse different mediums, fostering a dialogue between traditional and contemporary forms of artistic expression. His large-scale installations strikingly reflect the frenetic pace of construction that characterizes many urban landscapes in India.

One of Sharma's notable artistic techniques is his use of miniaturization, which carries a subtle, often satirical commentary on societies that blindly embrace Western modernity as the pinnacle of cultural achievement. While gently mocking this adoption of foreign ideals, his works simultaneously serve as monuments to the very concept of progress and modernity they critique.

“
Over the past few years, I've had a growing interest in looking at landscape. There is something so sad and beautiful about being at a height and looking down at a vast horizon, still just a small section of this earth. Being distanced and away from people, being able to see a larger pattern, perhaps some sort of meaning, without getting caught up in details. I've always wanted to paint an enormous view of the earth, broken up into units not just for practical purposes, but also to make this vastness more comprehensible.
Nataraj Sharma in conversation with Peter Nagy, exhibition catalogue, iCON/India Contemporary, at the Venice Biennale 2005; Bose Pacia, New York, 2005 p. 59

Sharma's themes revolve around historical progress and the gritty realities of urban life. His art serves as a profound exploration of the juxtaposition between the traditional narrative tradition of figuration, with its emphasis on the aspirations of the emerging middle class, and the geometric abstraction of Indian modernist painters.

Nataraj Sharma's exhibition, "Travel Log," marking his second solo exhibition in North America and his first in New York in over a decade, featured monumental canvases that capture Sharma's journeys throughout India and its surrounding regions. These artworks delve into the intricate connections between urban environments and the natural world. Characterized by their stark, desolate, yet visually captivating scenes, these landscapes hint at the unpredictable intersections of nature, civilization, and industrialization. 

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