Tanvi Shaha is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of installation, sculpture, and cultural transformation. Her practice investigates visibility, memory, and the fluidity of personal and collective narratives, often engaging with materials and processes that bridge tradition and contemporary craft. Through immersive and interactive works, Shaha creates sensory experiences that invite audiences to engage with the unseen layers of transformation that shape identity and emotion.
Origin: India
Currently Exhibiting in: New York City
Social Media: Instagram: @aart_fullness
Bio
Tanvi Shaha (b. 1996) is an installation and sculpture artist currently pursuing an MFA in Sculpture at Pratt Institute, New York. With a background in both fine arts and architecture, she integrates spatial awareness and material experimentation into her work. Her practice is driven by themes of visibility, cultural osmosis, and transformation, examining how histories, emotions, and traditions evolve over time.
Shaha holds a BA in Visual Arts and Painting from Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, and a Bachelor of Architecture from SMEF’s Brick School of Architecture, Pune. Her architectural training informs the way she constructs sculptural environments, shaping spaces that invite both reflection and participation.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Bacteria from Invisible to Visible 2 (Milan, 2022), Collateral Effects (Rome, 2022), and (im)possible ecologies (Rome, 2022). In 2022, she was awarded the Dr. Shirota Special Mention Prize for her interactive installation Inconspicuous Interactions, a piece that blurred the boundaries between science and art.
Beyond her independent practice, Shaha works as a wood shop assistant at Pratt Institute, refining her expertise in fabrication and material processes. She has also collaborated with artists such as Matteo Nasini, Ra di Matina, and participated in projects at the MAXXI Museum in Rome. Her ongoing exploration of immersive installations and public art seeks to dissolve boundaries between tradition and experimentation, preservation and adaptation—a philosophy that defines her evolving artistic journey.
Featured Artwork at Bushwick Gallery
Blank Canvas ?!
- Year of Creation: 2025
- Medium: Mixed Media: Paintings and Photographs
- Dimensions: 39” x 35”
- Description: Blank Canvas ?! is an exploration of memory, transformation, and the question of whether we ever truly start anew. Through layers of paint applied and obscured over time, the work mimics the way emotions and experiences evolve—never fully erased, but absorbed into identity. The act of layering white paint became a meditative, performative process, reflecting how time alters perception and how certain memories soften while others remain deeply embedded beneath the surface.
Exhibition Information
March 2025: “Metamorphosis: Transformations in Art”
Curated by: Paridhi Chawla
Theme: Exploring transformation, change, and evolution through artistic expression.
Exhibition Dates: March 6 – March 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 6 | 6 PM – 8 PM
Guided audio experience
For accessibility, the full video transcript is provided below for those who prefer to read or are unable to listen.
“Tanvi Shaha’s work is an excavation of time—of memory layered, obscured, and reemerging in quiet persistence. In Blank Canvas ?!, she challenges the idea of starting anew, revealing how every past experience lingers beneath the surface. The work is not just a composition; it is a process—paint applied and concealed, pigment absorbed into unseen layers, a meditation on the way identity is shaped by what we choose to remember and what fades into abstraction.
The textured surface of Blank Canvas ?! suggests both presence and absence. Some marks resist erasure, while others dissolve into the background, mirroring the way memories shift over time. Photographic elements weave into the work, anchoring fleeting impressions to something more tangible. This interplay between visibility and disappearance invites the viewer to reflect on their own evolving narratives.
For Shaha, painting is not just an act of creation but of transformation. The repetition of layering white paint became an embodied performance—a ritual of loss, renewal, and quiet assertion.”