Triangles

S Harshavardhana abandoned a successful career as a bioscientist in 1993 to pursue his love of painting, a passion that remained merely a hobby for many years. Son of the modern master Jagdish Swaminathan, Harshavardhana's inclination towards art was almost a given. 

Born in 1958 in New Delhi, Harshavardhana has a postgraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and a diploma in Business Management. He worked in senior management positions in the biomedical industry for many years before devoting himself fully to his artistic vocation.

Harshavardhana is a self-taught artist who showcases his vast creative vocabulary in his highly textured yet colorful canvases. Deeply influenced by tribal art and symbols, he creates abstract geometric shapes (mostly inverted triangular structures built within carefully demarcated areas of color) that violently cut into each other. While some of these shapes blend, others create obvious scars, lending a distinctive character to his works.

The artist's works have been exhibited in multiple solo and group exhibitions around the world. His solo exhibitions include Enduring Intimations from Far and Near at Gallery Espace, New Delhi, in 2007-08, Searching for Reality at Indigo Blue Art, Singapore, in 2007, Lines Maketh the Web at Aicon Gallery, New York, in 2007, and Acute, Obtuse and Does Right at Aicon Gallery, California in 2006. Lives and works in New Delhi.

BORN

1958 New Delhi

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS

Master of Science in Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan

Diploma in Business Management

Self-Taught Artist

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014 Galerie J Bastien Art, Brussels, Belgium

2012 Ideations Color, shape, dimension and space, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi

2007-08 Lasting Insinuations from Far and Near, Gallery Espace, New Delhi

2007 Searching for Reality, Indigo Blue Art, Singapore

2007 Lines Maketh the Web, Aicon Gallery, New York, USA

2007 Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi

2006 Sharp, Obtuse and Sometimes Right, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto, California, USA

2000 Luminous Ground, Lakeeran Art Gallery, Mumbai

1999 Sangati, Art Inc., New Delhi

1997 Wanderings, Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012 Aviraam Celebrating the Pioneer Spirit - S H Raza at 90, presented by The Raza Foundation at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

2011 The Lost Sparrow, presented by Gallery Threshold at Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

2011 Form and Formlessness, Art Alive Gallery, Gurgaon

2011 Cross Currents, Art Positive, New Delhi

2010 Black is Beautiful, Indian Fine Arts, Mumbai

2010 Beyond Objecthood, presented by Gandhara Art Gallery at Nandalal Bose Hall, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Kolkata

2009-10 On canvas -1, Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi

2009 Think Small, Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi

2009 Moderns and More, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto, California, USA

2009 Divagations Spaces of Possibility, Raza Foundation Awardee Exhibition, Art Alive, New Delhi

2008 Contemporary Abstract Art, Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi

2008 Stories, reflections and constructions, ITC Windsor, Bangalore

2007 High on Art, Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

2007 Colors of Art, presented by Galerie Sara Arakkal and Gallery Art Resource Trust at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

2006 Drawing Exhibition: An Act of Art II, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai

2006 Confluence, Aicon Gallery, New York, USA

2004 Indian artists for France, New Delhi

2004 Young Contemporary Artists, New Delhi

2003 Cultural Ties, Apparao Galleries, New Delhi and Mumbai

2003 2D - 3D, Center for Visual Arts, Hong Kong, China

2002 Navarasa, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

2000 The Masks of the Millennium, Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi

1999 Art with Heart, Hotel Oberoi, New Delhi

1998 Veiled Spaces, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

1998 Multimedia, Center International of Modern Art (CIMA), Calcutta

1997 Postmodern Indian Art, Turlock, California, USA

1996 Lakeeren Art Gallery, Mumbai

1996 The Pastel, Gallery Art Motif, New Delhi