1960, India
Shan Ré has shown her work professionally since 1999.
Her work has been a part of three Museum shows, private and public solo shows and several group shows in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Shan’s artistic language comes from intimate experiences with life, spilling over in her individualistic dialogue with the canvas and the viewer. “You have to use the raw material of your own life and incorporate it into your work to produce something genuine,” says Shan who works with a childlike simplicity that’s very intuitive, relying only on instinct and emotion. A vibrant density, an impulsive brilliant palette, her oils and acrylics have an energy encompassing emotions, combining myth and reality.
She started her career with vivid colorscapes, reminiscent
of early Roerichs, and then went on to develop an obsession
for psychedelic Faces. Through the late 90's Shan established
herself as a painter, producing several successful collections
like "The Nocturnals", "Tribal Heads", "Haunted
Faces".
During 2001 - 02 she produced a series of landscapes titled
"Memories of Kulu Valley".
In 2003 - 04 she came out with "Nudescapes" and several
small-format works painted during her travels. Other notable
portfolios of this period are "Fisherwomen of Goa",
"Man in the Rusted Nails" and "Folio of Self
Portraits".
From the year 2001 Shan’s female faces gradually became mellow
and almost serene, causing one of her collectors to remark in
2004: “A Shan Ré is essentially feminine in character,
decorative in element, and poetic in form and motion”. However,
her male faces, notably “Man in the Rusted Nails” - the series
of Christ-like images, continued to evoke pathos.
Shan’s strength lies in her ability to invoke human sentiment with minimal detailing, flowing colors and simple forms. She often captures her subjects in a moment of contemplation, self-discovery or self-healing. Her figures are set in dramatic dreamlike backdrops that personify a range of human moods.
In
2000, Shan started to experiment with “Free Association Drawings” which
she derived from Free Association Writing. Soon she found that she was
able to tap into her subconscious and express herself more eloquently
than before. By 2006 she produced more than 7000 miniature drawings, each
of which is an ode to spontaneity and intuition.
"Seated at dawn in my silent studio
Alone, a pencil moves my hand across the paper
Slender lines leap out of the solitude
Making me pronounce that which is not seen", writes Shan about her
drawings.
Over the years Shan drawings have gone from being purely abstract to somewhat figurative while remaining within the sphere of minimalism. Her latest portfolio of Drawings is called "The Eternal Spring". There is a certain exuberance in these drawings that is compelling even if you look at one drawing in isolation. The boldness and harmony of the lines and curves implies a sense of joie de verve, a celebration of life. “The Eternal Spring” also connotes wishful thinking and preservation of inner peace in a time of chaos.
Shan has spent most
of her career on a bohemian journey traversing India and the US. She currently
lives and works in Bangalore, India. Besides painting and drawing Shan
has worked on varied art projects such as mixed-media murals, stainless
steel sculpture, and functional sculpture. Over the past two years she
has been commissioned by several corporations in Bangalore to produce
large-scale murals and sculptures.
Her paintings, drawings, murals, sculptures and functional sculptures
are in several prominent private collections in India, United States and
Europe.
Recent corporate collections at Bangalore include include:
* ITC Infotech Ltd. * Brigade Group * Prestige Constructions * Salarpuria
Properties
* ING Vysya Bank * Biocon India Ltd. * Embassy Constructions * Bhoruka
Power Corp.
* G R Tech Park * RMZ EcoSpace * Golf Links Business Park