
Padmashri awardee Shyam Sharma’s artworks are a fine example of nature entwining with mind. He is one of the greatest living legends India has says Vasant Rao, artist and curator from Sydney, Australia
If nature is the macrocosm, the body is the microcosm. Nature is life oriented, while the mind is individual-oriented. When there is a clash between the mind and nature, we try to shape the world following the mind, rather than living in harmony with higher existence. This is where the conflict begins. Nature ultimately wins by reclaiming the bodily form. The balance between the mind and nature has a significant bearing on our ecosystem. The mind uses the body in a way that may or may not be in tune with nature. Nature is not some distant phenomena. In the form of our body, we carry a drop of nature wherever we go. Padmashri awardee Shyam Sharma’s artworks are a fine example of nature entwining with mind. He is one of the greatest living legends India has and is presently based in Patna.
The legendary artist imbibes the vibrancy of Indian tradition from the colourful devotionalism of his birthplace Govardhan, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. In Shyam Sharm’s work, one can recognise a few important characteristics of constant innovation and discovery in his great body of works. Shyam Sharma’s work of art depicts multiple visual depictions in a single composition that includes symbols of Indian cultural and spiritual values. They express meaning and meaninglessness, sound and silence of our own life and the world around us. His colours are mostly earth colours or primary colours which shows his main concern with what is quaint and permanent and not what is bright and immediate.
Shyam Sharma’s visual compositions present the degree and quality of Nature connectedness of life which forms our identity. The characteristics of nature connectedness are similar to those of a personality trait and can be referred to as emotional affinity towards nature or inclusion of nature in self. The forms in his painting reveal some ancient wisdom describing layers of experience.


The colours in Shyam Sharma’s work create a great environment to seek some divine mystery. The beautiful healthy forms, lines and space make a great physical body of his idea wherein his mind, intuition and spirit are housed thus creating a scape of silent consciousness just like a mirror. The end result is the most valuable experience of the artist and a quality of the inner music depicted visually for the viewer that shows the inner space is full of harmony, joy, blissfulness.
Shyam Sharma’s work of art gives the viewer an experience of having entered some secret, undiscovered space of existence. His entire process of art is presented in such a subtle way that you can feel privileged that all the mysteries of existence are exposed to you. You can enjoy the first- hand experience of the power and energy of Shyam Sharma’s work at the Art Life Gallery, wherein the show Akash Ganga is going on representing his works. The show is curated by Pratibha Agarwal wherein she has made sincere attempts to reveal these hidden secrets of ethereal existence.