Nilima Sheikh was born on 18 November 1945 and is a visual artist based in Baroda, India.
11 Facts About Nilima Sheikh
2.
Since the mid-80s, Sheikh has done extensive research about traditional art forms in India, advocated for the sustainability of the practice of traditional painters, and used a wide range of visual and literary sources in her work.
3.
Nilima Sheikh's work focuses on displacement, longing, historical lineage, tradition, communal violence, and the ideas of femininity.
4.
Nilima Sheikh started exhibiting her work in 1969 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions, most recently documenta 14, Athens and Kassel in 2017.
5.
Nilima Sheikh was influenced by artists such as Kanwal Krishna, Devyani Krishna, and K G Subramanyan, and attributes the older Santiniketan experiment, Baroda's weightage to art history, and her earlier education in history as major influences.
6.
Nilima Sheikh has stated to be influenced by pre-modern Rajput and Mughal court paintings, especially traditional tempera paintings like Pichhwai and Thangka paintings.
7.
In 2018, Asia Art Archive from Hong Kong organized an exhibition called Lines of Flight: Nilima Sheikh Archive drawing from their collection of Nilima Sheikh.
8.
In 2017 Nilima Sheikh's work was exhibited in documenta 14 in Athens, Greece, and in Kassel, Germany.
9.
Nilima Sheikh made drawings of the motifs of these art forms, documented the tools and methods they use, and corresponded with organizations related to cultural heritage to ask for support for the preservation of these art forms.
10.
Nilima Sheikh visited again, together with Gulam in 2011, for a site visit at the caves in Dunhuang.
11.
Nilima Sheikh believes the visual aesthetics of Dunhuang cave has influenced her own creative practice as she often infused shifting perspectives and scales into her own works.