Born in 1980 in Shrimadhopur (Sikar), Rajasthan, Gourishankar Soni received his diploma in Drawing and Painting from Rajasthan School of Art, Jaipur in 2000 and later completed his M.F.A in Painting from Faculty of Finer Art Rajasthan University, in 2003.
The artist has been fascinated by the iconic Indian architecture since childhood. The unique shapes of windows and doors of various historical buildings such as Hawamahal, Shekhawati Havelis, and palaces captivated his imagination. Gourishankar transformed these fascinating doors and windows into square, rectangle and circular holes in his artworks, holes that connected and communicated with the world outside, just like the windows from his favourite buildings.
Gourishankar creates a monochromatic background for his human figure subjects. These backgrounds are then textured with a variety of symbols, characters and signs, that are influenced by different cultural signs and characters. Some backgrounds would remind one of the characters and symbols from ancient Indian and Egyptian cave paintings and tribal art. His subjects; the human figures in different postures, and daily life objects such as chairs, bells, musical instruments, etc. are then seen peeping out of the windows, in contrasting tones, adding a pop of colour to the monochromatic settings.
Gourishankar has showcased his art at many different group and solo exhibitions in numerous Indian and international galleries, including the prestigious, Lalit Kala Academy at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, NCPA, Mumbai, Rang Malhaar Art Festival, Jaipur, etc. He has also received awards from the prestigious Lalit Kala Academy, All India Fine Art and Craft Society, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy.
