Biography

The work of N.S. Harsha embraces painting, installation, site-specific and community projects. Communicating narratives of everyday life, his work combines an eclectic range of images and iconography taken from his homeland of India and the wider world beyond.

Always situated in the context of global events, his work becomes a subtle and often humorous commentary on social and political issues.  For the 9th Sharjah Biennial Harsha recreated his major installation work Nations which juxtaposed national flags with the sewing machines, tools and by implication, the human labour necessary to create them.

Harsha has shown widely including solo presentations at Iniva, London (2009), Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp (2009), the Sharjah Biennial (2009), Maison Hermes, Tokyo (2008) and group exhibitions including the touring exhibition Indian Highway at the Herning Kunstmuseum, Herning (2010) and the Serpentine Gallery (2009), Sao Paulo Biennial (2010), Liverpool Biennial (2010), Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (2008), Daimler Contemporary, Berlin (2007), Singapore Biennale (2006) and the House of World Cultures, Berlin (2005). He was awarded the prestigious Artes Mundi Prize in 2008 and the Sanskriti Award in 2003.

He received a BFA, from CAVA, Mysore (1992) and an MFA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1995). N.S. Harsha was born in 1969 and lives and works in Mysore, India.

October 2010