Raqib Shaw was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, in 1974, and brought up in Kashmir. In 1998, he moved to London, England, to study art, enrolling at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Establishing a successful exhibition career after graduation, and known for his intricate, colourful and opulent paintings which draw on a wide range of sources, he lives and works in London.
Artist Raqib Shaw was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, in 1974. He was brought up in Kashmir but had to leave in 1989, moving to New Delhi, where he worked for a time for his family who dealt in luxury goods including jewels, rugs and antiques. In 1998, Shaw immigrated to London, England, to study Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, graduating with a masters degree in 2002. He has since lived and worked in London and is known for his intricate, colourful and opulent paintings which draw on a wide range of sources from art history, mythology, literature, religion, and natural history. Among the numerous influences and inspirations, he cites Persian carpets and jewellery, Asian pottery, Renaissance paintings, Japanese lacquerware and kimonos, the Arts and Crafts movement, and industrial materials.
Shaw's formative years growing up in Kashmir have had a great impact on his life and work. He has said: 'I survived the civil war. I've seen loss and helplessness. I could not stay back in Kashmir and fight for independence. But what I can do is capture the beauty and the pain of Kashmir though the painting' ('Creating Renaissance-style beauty [...] in an old sausage factory', BBC Arts, 13 Aug 2018). The hangings, fabrics, carpets and jewellery which surrounded him growing up have provided inspiration for his paintings and sculpture. Shaw has also developed a unique method for executing his paintings, using pools of enamel and industrial metallic paints, which he manipulates on the canvas to create sharp details and rich surface textures; he first used needles for this before finding greater effects could be achieved with a porcupine quill. Motifs are outlined in embossed gold, evoking one of Shaw's many influences: cloisonné techniques found in early Asian pottery. In his paintings Shaw creates fantastical, extravagant landscapes and intricate worlds, rich with colour and filled with marvels and wonders, and he often paints himself into the scenes, using them to express and explore his experiences in life. Some works incorporate decorative items such as glitter, beads and semi-precious stones into their surfaces. He has also explored his fascination with Renaissance art, which he first saw in New Delhi in bookstores, and Old Master paintings in his work. In his 2016 series Self Portraits he transformed the architecture and religious scenes of Old Master paintings by introducing elements of his studio in Peckham, South London, the landscape of Kashmir, Hindu iconography and Japanese architecture, and exhibited bronze sculptures made using the lost wax casting technique that referenced Renaissance works. In 2004, Shaw held a solo exhibition, Raqib Shaw: Garden of Earthly Delights, at Victoria Miro Gallery, London, followed by further one person shows, including at Tate Modern, London, Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, and at White Cube. At the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, in 2018, he exhibited reworkings of Old Master paintings that presented lavish worlds populated with architecture, animals, and anthropomorphic characters.He has also participated in numerous group shows, including the touring exhibition Nation and Nature, Vaster than Empires in 2003. He was featured in Ben Uri's online exhibition Midnight's Family: 70 Years of Indian Artists in Britain in 2020.
Raqib Shaw lives and works in Peckham, South London, where he runs a studio converted from an old sausage factory, employing a team of painters, photographers, sculptors, musicians, and a florist, who work surrounded by plants, bonsai trees, beehives and waterfalls. Shaw has likened the studio to a Renaissance atelier (BBC Arts, 13 Aug 2018). In the UK public domain his work is represented in the collections of Tate and Central Saint Martins. He has also shown with the prestigious international commercial galleries, Thaddeus Ropac and Pace. In 2022, to coincide with the Venice Bienale, he presented Raqib Shaw: Palazzo della Memoria at the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Ca’ Pesaro, curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal, in collaboration with White Cube.