Sharmila Kapur

Artist Statement

I have lived in numerous cities and three continents, and that movement has shaped how I see the world. My work explores emotional undercurrents, those fleeting, often unspoken states that drift between memory, intuition and vulnerability. Through my paintings and drawings, I seek to give form to what is usually felt rather than seen, where
figures and places shift between recognition and invention. My drawings are like an excavation, where layers of marks accumulate, are erased, reworked and rebuilt, mirroring the nonlinear way in which emotions surface in the body.
Color plays a central role in my work. I borrow from what my country of birth, India, has given me - warm earth tones, bright pinks, peacock blues, and vibrant pulses of red -hues that echo its people, textiles and landscapes. With paint, I shift between carefully painted flattened shapes and vigorous brushwork, at times scratching with a palette knife many applications of oil paint to reveal the surface below.
Overall, my goal is to make work that is sincere and imaginative. I want viewers to recognize something familiar in the work, perhaps an emotion, a memory, or a sense of place, and to have space to reflect on their own experiences.