BIOGRAPHY
Born in Calcutta, India, and raised in Kashmir, Raqib Shaw’s paintings are defined by an innovative and distinctive technique of drawing enamel with porcupine quills, through which he constructs intricately layered compositions that move between meditative calm and dynamic intensity. They engage in dialogue with both personal experience and broader cultural discourse, drawing on a wide spectrum of influences that include Renaissance painting, Japanese aesthetics, Persian, Mughal and Hindu art forms, Western literature, and Jungian philosophy. Employing metaphor and satire, Shaw’s paintings address the complexities of contemporary existence and the enduring questions of the human condition
The Paradox of Pain and Beauty
“True beauty carries within it the seed of pain, just as light carries the memory of darkness. The two are bound together in a quiet, eternal pact: one cannot be understood without the other. Pain deepens perception; it strips away the ornamental and reveals what is essential. Beauty, in turn, redeems pain by giving it form — by transforming suffering into something that can be seen, held, or shared.
In every act of creation there exists this paradox of pain and beauty. The artist does not paint merely what is beautiful; he paints what has been broken and made luminous again. Beauty without sorrow is decorative, fleeting — it does not move the soul. But beauty that has passed through pain acquires gravity; it becomes compassionate, enduring, human. The most tender works of art are born from the deepest wounds, and the most radiant colours often emerge from the darkest pigments of experience.
Perhaps this is why beauty makes us ache — because it reminds us of what we have lost, and yet affirms that loss itself can give rise to meaning. Pain gives beauty its authenticity, while beauty gives pain its purpose. Together they form the central paradox of existence: that what hurts most can also be what saves us, that from the very soil of suffering grows the flower of transcendence”.
- Raqib Shaw
EDUCATION
2001-2002 MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.
1998-2001 BA (Honors) Fine Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Raqib Shaw: Paradise Lost, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
2024
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA.
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West, Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum, Boston, MA, USA.
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, California, USA.
2023
Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West, Frist Museum, Nashville, USA.
Raqib Shaw: Space Between Dreams, Pace Gallery, New York,USA.
2022
Raqib Shaw: Tales from an Urban Garden, The Little House, Dries van Noten, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Raqib Shaw: Palazzo della Memoria, Ca’Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice, Italy.
2021
Raqib Shaw: Reflections Upon the Looking-Glass River, Pace, Geneva, Switzerland.
2020
Cranach: Artist and Innovator, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK.
2019
2018
2017
2016
Self Portraits, White Cube Bermondsey, London, UK.
White Cube at Glyndebourne: Raqib Shaw, 2016 Glyndebourne Festival, Glyndebourne,UK.
2015
New Sculptures, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg,Austria.
2014
Raqib Shaw: Paradise Lost, Pace Gallery, New York,USA.
2013
Raqib Shaw, Rudolfinium, Prague, Czech Republic.
Raqib Shaw, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.
2012
2011
2009
Absence of God, White Cube, London,UK.
Absence of God, Karlsplatz Project Space, Kunsthalle Wien,Vienna,Austria.
2008
2006
Art Now: Raqib Shaw, Tate Britain, London,UK.
Raqib Shaw: Garden Of Earthly Delights, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami,FL,USA.
2005
2004
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
From Cindy Sherman to Francesco Vezzoli. 80 contemporary artists, Palazzo Reale, Milan,Italy.
The Monster: Curated by Robert Nava, Pace Gallery, Los Angeles,USA.
Feelings in Common, Pera Museum, Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey.
2024
ECCENTRIC: Aesthetics of Freedom, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich,Germany.
2023
Drawn into the Present: Portraits on Paper, Thaddaeus Ropac, London,UK.
Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes,UK.
Sangam/Confluence, Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Mumbai,India.
MIRROR/ MAZE: Echoes of song, space, spectre, Works from the KNMA collection, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi,India.
Rara avis, White Cube,Paris, France.
Foolish Fire, NEWCHILD, Antwerp, Belgium.
2022
Myth Makers – Spectrosynthesis III, Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong.
2020
Grayson’s Art Club, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester,UK.
No horizon, no edge to liquid, Zabludowicz Collection,London,UK.
Midnight's Family, Ben Uri Gallery & Museum, ST.John's wood, London,UK.
2019
Drawing Biennial 2019, Drawing Room, London,UK.
2018
Animals & Us, Turner Contemporary, Margate,UK.
Memory Palace, White Cube, London,UK.
Remembering Tomorrow, White Cube, Hong Kong.
Deutsche Bank Collection: The World on Paper, Palais Populaire, Berlin,Germany.
2017
Global New Art, Woodone Museum of Art, Hiroshima,Japan.
2016
Drawing Biennial 2015, Drawing Room, London,UK.
2015
2014
2013
Group Exhibition, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester,UK.
2012
2011
2010
2009
2007
2006
There’s No Fooling You (The Classics), Peres Projects,London.
Dan Attoe, Elliott Hundley, Raqib Shaw: There's No Fooling You (The Classics), Peres Projects, Los Angeles,USA.
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001