thechairoomxitmeanslight — IT MEANS LIGHT

Shamira Dharap (b. 1998) is a painter from Pune, india. Her work is centered on the landscapes and cityscapes she inhabits. She uses photography, video, painting, and drawing as reflective tools to unravel her relationship with her urban surroundings. Much of her documentation of these spaces is done from a moving vehicle, which destabilizes the acts of looking and observation. She is interested in exploring the effect of these interruptions on the process of meaning-making. Her current work is based on photos and videos taken in the streets of her hometown, examining the binaries of distance and memory, attachment and detachment, movement and stillness, and the abandoned and the renewed.
Shamira has a BFA in Painting (2021) from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara. She has worked with schools and independent studios as an art facilitator and curriculum designer for over seven years and hopes to continue this engagement alongside her studio practice. She recently completed an MFA in Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, for which she received the Kirloskar Scholarship (2023) and the RISD Fellowship (2023).