Shipra Bhattacharya

Born 1954, Shipra Bhattacharya’s art engages deeply with the inner world of women — their desires, memories, and quiet strength. While the female figure occupies the heart of her canvas, it is the emotional and psychological landscape of her subjects that truly animates her work. Her women are neither passive muses nor traditional icons; they are self-possessed, enigmatic, and often turned inward — carriers of untold stories and silent rebellions.

Working with bold yet harmonious colour palettes and fluid brushwork, Bhattacharya brings to life a sensuous, introspective world. Her recent paintings explore the female body not as an object, but as a vessel of meaning — adorned with symbolic imagery and motifs that express fulfillment, longing, and identity. These women may face away from the viewer, yet their presence commands attention, hinting at mysteries that lie just beyond the visible.

Though her work touches on portraiture, it transcends it — each figure rendered with a startling realism that never lapses into the literal. Through the interplay of light, texture, and colour, her paintings achieve a beguiling balance between softness and strength, the intimate and the universal.

Educated at the College of Arts and Crafts and the College of Visual Arts in Kolkata, Shipra Bhattacharya has been exhibiting her work since 1981. Her solo exhibitions include EVEa, presented by Gallery Sanskriti at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (2006). Her work has also been featured in numerous international group shows, such as Think Small at Art Alive, New Delhi (2009); Miles Apart at Point of View, Mumbai (2009); Manthan, presented by Nitanjali Art Gallery at Galerie Romain Rolland, New Delhi (2009); and An Indian Summer by Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi, at the Gallery in Cork Street, London (2007).