Shubham Kumar
(b. 1995)
Shubham Kumar is an artist from Gaya, Bihar and currently lives and works in Vadodara. His work is informed by familial introspection that traces the politics of land, construction, regional violence, and counter Maoist-insurgencies in Murera and Gaya (Bihar). Images, ideas and creatures from his native land operate as metaphors, through which he makes sense of the complex ideological narratives imposed onto the region’s life. His work proposes scenarios that address these tensions between the perceiver and the represented subjects. He exposes the subtle ways in which dominant, oppressive narratives inhabit majoritarian imagination. His interventions include problematizing the making of the documentary image and fabrications – primarily through parafictions, painting, image transfer, installations, and software interfaces as tools and mediums. The works, as such, are investigations into the digital and photographic nature of these materials, focused on minute, subtle changes (organic and intervened) instead of larger, defined narratives.
Shubham Kumar has participated in various group exhibitions including the ‘WWWW’, Art Incept, Delhi (2022); ‘Defining Home’, Hissa, Surat (2022); ‘Immerse’, Somaiya Vidyavihar, Mumbai (2022); Art Incept Grant show, Delhi (2022); Cima Award Show, Kolkata (2022); ‘Surface Encounters & Strange Beings’, Goa (2021); ‘Untitled IX’, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai (2021); Students Biennale, Kochi (2021); Degree Show at FFA MS University, Vadodara (2018); ‘In-making’, Fine Art Gallery, Vadodara (2018). He has also been a part of the Immerse residency, Somaiya Vidyavihar, Mumbai (2022); Khoj Peers, Delhi (2021); ‘The conditioned Image’; online workshop by Chinar Shah, Bengaluru (2020); SSAF Next Step Residency at 1Shanthiroad, Bangalore (2019) and attended workshops on Video art by Gigi Scaria, MSU Baroda (2018) as well as the Kala Sakshi mentoring workshops (2018). Shubham has been awarded the Tacita Dean Award, Art Incept, Delhi (2022); Kalpana Reddy Memorial Award, M.S.U. Baroda (2021); Khoj Support Grant, Delhi (2020); Nasreen Mohamedi award for Best Display BVA, MSU Baroda (2018); as well as the JJ School of Art Printmaking award (2014).
