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Shakti Maira
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Shakti Maira was an artist and sculptor. He painted in a wide variety of mediums, sculpted and made art prints. He tended to work in series that gravitated around his concerns and ideas, which changed and evolved through the years. The major series have been:
About his art making Shakti said: “Back in the 1970’s, I formed an intention about my art making: it must operate for me and the viewers at the four levels at which I seemed...
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Shakti Maira was an artist and sculptor. He painted in a wide variety of mediums, sculpted and made art prints. He tended to work in series that gravitated around his concerns and ideas, which changed and evolved through the years. The major series have been:
About his art making Shakti said: “Back in the 1970’s, I formed an intention about my art making: it must operate for me and the viewers at the four levels at which I seemed to experience — sensory, emotional, thought, and spirit or consciousness. It would be a positive engagement bringing pleasure to the senses; it would generate positive feelings and thoughts, and deepen and uplift the spirit. Only recently I have realised that this is also the heart of the philosophy and purpose of art in the great Indian tradition.”
Shakti’s work has often been regarded as being of the spiritual, though it was never about religious subjects and he remained wary of all forms of self-conscious spirituality, traditional and new age, and the art that is associated with them. He said: “Though I have studied and delighted in Buddhist psychology and philosophy, contemplation and meditation, my impulse to make art has flowed freely and has not derived or based itself in any theory, history, group or movement. Perhaps, this quality of being real, honest and free of art and religious dogma is the quality that my art has, which is also what we probably seek and experience in true spirituality. Perhaps it is this that causes people to see my work as ‘spiritual’."
About this quality in Shakti’s work, eminent philosopher Ken Wilber has said: “To integrate spirit and matter in an aesthetic presentation that opens the viewer to an integral moment is remarkable enough. But what is truly astonishing about Shakti’s work is the depth to which that intention is realised. Shakti is the finest integral artist now working in the fields of painting and sculpture.”
Shakti also wrote on art, aesthetics, culture and travel, for newspapers and magazines in India and abroad. He was a columnist for First City and Design Today magazines. His book, Towards Ananda: Rethinking Indian Art and Aesthetics, was published by Penguin Viking in January 2006.
Shakti was interested in children’s education and development through art and conducted numerous workshops in schools in the US and India. In 2005 he helped organise the "Learning through the Arts in Asia" symposium in New Delhi, and was subsequently invited by UNESCO to prepare the Asian vision statement for "Arts in Education: Learning Through the Arts".
He had his first one-person exhibition 30 years ago, and since then had 24 solo shows in India, US and Europe, in addition to participating in several group shows. His work can be found at the National Gallery of Modern Art, India, in collections belonging to leading corporate houses, and in private collections around the world.
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Born
1947
Died
2021
Exhibitions
Solo Shows | *
Untitled, Taj Art Gallery, Bombay | 1973 *
Monsoon...
Solo Shows | *
Untitled, Taj Art Gallery, Bombay | 1973 *
Monsoon Skies, Taj Art Gallery, Bombay | 1974 *
Waves of Sea, Waves of Mind, Taj Art Gallery, Bombay | 1976 *
Mountain Ways and Mist of Mind, Taj Art Gallery, Bombay | 1977 *
Mountains Breathing, Whispering Mandalas, Taj Art Gallery, Bombay | 1979 *
Meditation in Landscape, Salon des Artistes, Boston | 1979 *
New Hampshire Drawings, Triveni Gallery, New Delhi | 1988 *
Fallen God Series, Triveni Gallery, New Delhi | 1989 *
Paintings and Drawings, India International Centre, New Delhi | 1989 *
Chikai Bardo Series, New England College Gallery, Henniker | 1990 *
Intimations of Transcendence , Lalit Kala Academy (National Arts
Academy), New Delhi | 1999 *
Intimations of Transcendence, Cymroza Gallery, Bombay | 1992 *
Recent Work, Windsor Gallery, Bangalore Sculpture, Marble Paintings &
Prints , Shridharani Gallery (Triveni), New Delhi |1994 *
Recent Paintings, Reliefs & Sculpture, The Village Gallery, New Delhi |
1995 *
Insight/Absorption (folding panels) & Silent Witnesses (Ceramic
Sculpture), Taj Art Gallery, Bombay | 1997 *
Insight/Absorption (folding panels) & Silent Witnesses (Ceramic
Sculpture), Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi | 1997 *
Chitrakala, Celebrating Indian Art on India's 50th anniversary of
Independence, Galerie Grewal Mohanjeet, Paris | 1999 *
Group shows | *
Kala Yatra, Madras, New Delhi | 1979 *
New Hampshire Artist Association, Manchester | 1986 *
Kunst Gallery, Rotterdam, New Hampshire Artist Association, Manchester
Enchanted Eye Gallery, Hollis | 1987 *
Lassonde Juried Memorial Exhibition, NHAA, Manchester | 1988 *
Kala Yatra, Bangalore | 1989 *
Art from India, Dudley House, Harvard University, Cambridge Artists of
the Decade: | 1981-1990 *
Habiart Gallery, New Delhi | 1991 *
Gallery Artist's, Sigel & Sigel Gallery, Sante Fe | 1993 *
NHAA Forty-eighth Juried Annual Exhibition, The Currier Gallery of Art,
Manchester Small Works, McGowan Fine Art Gallery, Concord The Artist's
Champion, New England College Gallery, Henniker NESA Annual Show, Federal
Reserve Bank of Boston Gallery, Boston Art for Children's Sake, The India
Habitat Centre, New Delhi | 1994 *
4th Annual Summer Invitational Juried Prize Show, Perry House Galleries,
Washington, D.C. Lassonde Juried Memorial Exhibition, NHAA, Portsmouth
Contemporary Arts of India Gallery, New York |1995 *
"Transcendence", (2 person with Joyce Tenneson/Photographer), Island
Gallery, Portland NESA Show, Library Arts Center, Newport Hanging, Standing,
Sitting Invitational Show, Perry House Galleries, Washington, D.C., | 1996 *
Indian Art, Leela Art Gallery, Bombay | 1997 *
The Harmony Show, Bombay Selected Artists, McGowan Fine Art Gallery,
Concord | 1998 *
Honours and Awards
The Hitchiner Award for sculpture at the Annual NHAA Currier | 1994 *
The Hitchiner Award for sculpture at the Annual NHAA Currier | 1994 *
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PAST StoryLTD AUCTIONS
Showing
1
of
1
works
Lot 12
Details
Absolute Tuesdays
20 May 2025
Play in Grace - II
Linocut on paper
Winning bid
$20
Rs 1,680
(Inclusive of buyer's premium)
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