Born 1954 in Kolkata, Shipra Bhattacharya is a B.Sc. graduate, who later studied Fine Art at the College of Visual Arts, Kolkata, under the guidance of her teacher and mentor Shuvaprasanna whom she later married. In her early works she portrayed lifescapes she saw everywhere around, with an immense zest for the figurative idiom and a finesse in execution.
Her canvases often revolve around feminine figure entrapped within and encasing her dream world submerged in intricate renderings. While the female figure forms a central part of her work, it is more the inner consciousness of these women that the artist draws on, using bold yet soft colours and smooth brushwork. There is a mystery about each of her female protagonists – about the want of something more than what meets the eye. Her recent works show a clear departure from that phase as she moves from reality to fantasy. Women, both urban and rural, each with her secret passion-seeking fulfilment of an inner void of unfulfilled desires, have been the artist's current muse.
The artist combines with ease bright, bold colours and soft, curving strokes, rendering each of her paintings a mesmerizing paradox.
Ever since her first solo show in Kolkata in 1981, she has made her presence felt on the country’s thriving art scene with numerous solo and group shows all over India and at London and in New York. Her work adorns various public, corporate and private collections
