Shivangi Ladha has created a space for other artists to showcase and make work at India Printmaker House, a platform to facilitate workshops, exhibitions, prizes and residencies.
‘A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others’ – Salvador Dali. An exemplar of this statement among us is Shivangi Ladha, the third-place winner of The Arts Family award. The Arts Family (TAF) is a London based independent non-profit initiative connecting the global community of artists, curators, collectors, and other art market professionals interested in Contemporary arts. This prestigious award identifies emerging talent and assists the winners to build their careers. As a visual artist, Shivangi has done her specialization in MA Printmaking from Royal College of Art (RCA), London in 2016 prior to which, she did BFA in painting from the College of Art, Delhi University in 2012.
Since graduation, Shivangi has been experimenting to find ways of expressing her concerns about violence against women and girls and is unafraid to tackle this most difficult of subjects.
For the TAF emerging artist award, over 700 applications were received with works in painting, sculpture, photography, and other art forms. Applications were submitted by artists under the age of 35 living and working in South Asia. Winners were selected by a jury comprising of high-profile professionals in the arts of South Asia who are leaders in their field and comprise: Lekha Poddar (Devi Art Foundation), Julia Hutt (ex-Curator V&A Museum, London), Neha Jaiswal (Founder, The Arts Family), Amit Kumar Jain (Founder, Art & Culture specialist), Malini Roy (Curator British Library, London) & Shanti Panchal (Master British Indian Artist).
Shivangi adds, “Since childhood, I found art to be the most authentic way to express myself. All my relatives would always gift me colour pencils and sketchbooks. My parents also encouraged me to pursue the field of art professionally. Therefore, I decided to do my BFA in painting from the College of Art, Delhi.”
Shivangi’s work questions the true identity of our beloved human race. She uses a self-referential process to channel her engagement with social, political, and ecological spaces through the human body. The intention of her work is to raise awareness and spring consciousness in others about their own existence. It provides others with a different perspective on the concept of identity, which is not based upon mere constraints of the mind.
Shivangi adds, “I have slight dyslexia and have always struggled with reading, writing and memorization. I find it difficult to express myself in words so visual language becomes a cathartic way for me to express my subconscious feelings & emotions, which are universally understood. My time in college of art was about learning the skills by studying landscapes, model drawings, still life and exposure abroad pushed me to find my own voice as an artist.”
This year she was also nominated by Stephen Coppel, head of fine art prints at the British Museum for a major international print prize, The HM Queen Sonja print award 2022, Sweden. This is the world’s leading award for graphic arts and is presented every other year to a young ambitious artist who has excelled in the field of printmaking. Previously she has also received New Prints Artist Development Award by International Print Centre New York, IPCNY, USA 2018; Anthony Dawson Young Printmaker Award by Royal Society of Painters – Printmakers, 2017 and Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014, UK to name a few.
Shivangi Ladha has undertaken several residencies internationally in the UK, Spain, Canada and the USA and consistently exhibited work that has entered prestigious private and public collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum, London; the Mead Museum, Massachusetts; Nita Ambani, the Reliance Foundation, Mumbai; Mamta Singhania, Anant Art Gallery, Delhi.
She has also created a space for other artists to show and make work by initiating India Printmaker House, a platform to facilitate workshops, exhibitions, prizes and residencies. The mission of IPMH is to support young printmakers and to educate the public about medium printmaking.
Unique and qualified artists have defined success on their own terms. Be it digital or contemporary art, they portray to the world what sometimes words cannot.
For such a young artist Shivangi Ladha has proven to be at the forefront of contemporary art and her success on a global platform assures a very promising practice and career ahead of her.
