Arpita Shah
Born in India and having lived in Saudi Arabia, Ireland, and the UK, Shah explores the relationship between the individual and their cultural identities. In Nalini, turning her focus to her own family, she traces connections between herself, her mother and grandmother, and in current work she documents her pregnancy and experiences of motherhood.
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Choti from Nalini 2017
Untitled from Nalini 2018
Nalini in Bloom from Nalini 2016
Untitled from Nalini 2018
Mother’s reflection from Nalini 2018
Bougainvillaea Mahara from Nalini, 2016
Canal Road from Nalini 2017
Self Portrait with Harris and Lewis (147 days), 2019
White Sands from Nalini 2017
English Blue from Nalini 2016
Process image: contact sheet from Nalini 2016
Arpita Shah is a photographic artist based in Eastbourne, UK. She works between photography and film, exploring the fields where culture and identity meet. As an India-born artist, Shah spent an earlier part of her life living between India, Ireland and the Middle East before settling in the UK. This migratory experience is reflected in her practice, which often focuses on the notion of home, belonging and shifting cultural identities. Shah’s work tends to draw from Asian and Eastern mythology, using it both visually and conceptually to explore issues of cultural displacement in the South Asian diaspora.
She graduated from Napier University in Edinburgh in 2006. Her work has been exhibited across the UK and internationally, including at the Detroit Center of Contemporary Photography (2013); Tramway in Glasgow (2014); Chobi Mela IX in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2017); Autograph APB in London (2018) Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow (2019) and Impressions Gallery in Bradford (2020). She is the recipient of the 2019 Light Work + Autograph ABP Artist-in-Residence programme in Syracuse NY and her work is held at the National Galleries of Scotland and Birmingham Museums.