NVYA CONTEMPORARY

Shanta Samanta

Baroda

Shanta Samanta was born (1975) in Gujarat. Shanta studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts M.S.University Baroda (1995-2001). She worked under the guidence of Prof. Dhruv Mistry and Prof. Raghav Kaneria, both of whom are acclaimed scruptors. She is a first class graduate from Sculpture Department and completed her Masters Degree in 2001. Her sculptures have bagged the AIFACS Millennium All-India Art Award, Ahmedabad (2000), the AIFACS Award, New Delhi (1998) and the Gujarat State Lalit Kala Akademi Awards (1999 and 2002). Samanta talks about her work: “My works reflect youthful innocence, passion and zeal of life. Many of my Bronze creations are like a poetry of innocence of childhood and the wisdom and maturity of womanhood. They try to bring back the pleasure and enigma surrounding the experiences of my life. Most of my works are inspired by my rite of passage from childhood to womanhood. The works reflect youthful innocence, passion and the zeal of life. There is a sense of precariousness of delicate balance, harmony and tremendous movement in my sculptures, often arousing a sense of anticipation and an aspiring realization of the sublime of nature. The viewer is drawn into an apt reminder of lost innocence and pleasures of the childhood through an array of jumping, skipping, skating and riding figures defying gravity.” Currently, she is working as Assistant Professor, Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda.