NS Harsha

Drawing on a broad spectrum of Indian painting traditions and popular arts, as well as the western canon, NS Harsha creates quietly philosophical, luminous works that reflect on geopolitical order and our ever-more technologically mediated relationship with the world. In exquisitely rendered paintings, works on paper, wall and floor works, sculptures, site-specific installations and public projects, the Mysore-based artist examines structures, borders and barriers as a series of ever-shifting concepts, alluding to an interconnectedness that compels the viewer to consider their relationship to the art work as part of a wider conversation about systems of knowledge, belief and power.

While storytelling endures at the heart of his practice, linear narrative remains largely absent from the loosely gridded compositions of Harsha's canvases. The artist has described the process of producing these works as something like a chanting with forms, recalling a musical sense of cyclical time. The mood of these densely populated works is quietly philosophical. They lend a gentle humour and dreamlike grace to the human struggle of making meaning (whether scientific or spiritual). It is this non-hierarchical weaving of elements that lends Harsha's work a visual richness and generosity of spirit.

About the Artist

Born in 1969, NS Harsha lives and works in Mysore, India. He was a recipient of the prestigious DAAD Scholarship in 2012, and was awarded the Artes Mundi Prize in 2008.

Solo exhibitions and projects have taken place at international venues including Naoshima New Museum of Art, Japan (2025); NS Harsha: Stomach Studio, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India (2022); Recent Life, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India (2020); NS Harsha: Gathering Delights, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong, China (2019); NS Harsha, Victoria Miro, London, UK (2019); NS Harsha: Facing, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales, UK (2018); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2017) the Dallas Museum of Art, TX, USA (2015–16); DAAD, as part of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program (2012–13); INIVA, London, UK (2009); and at Maison Hermes Tokyo, Japan (2008).

Harsha's work has featured in group exhibitions at venues including the Tokyo National Museum Hyokeikan, Japan (2025); The Box, Plymouth, UK (2024); MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2021–21); National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India (2017); Samstag Museum, Adelaide, Australia (2015); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India (2014); Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art, Russia (2013); Dojima Biennial, Osaka, Japan (2013); Adelaide International Biennial, Australia (2012); Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA (2012); the Yokohama Triennial, Japan (2011) and the Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2010). He was also a participant in the major touring exhibition Indian Highway, which was staged at the Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2008); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2009); Herning Art Museum, Denmark (2010); Musée d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France (2011); MAXXI, Rome, Italy (2011–12).

His work is in the permanent collections of the Glenn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, UK; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Muhka Museum, Antwerp, Belgium; National Museum of Cardiff, UK; and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.