Shaurya Kumar

Shaurya Kumar is a Professor and Chair of Faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His practice intersects iconoclasm, cultural preservation, and devotional art, often interrogating the displacement of sacred objects and the ethics of museum curation.

Education:

• BFA, 2002, College of Art, New Delhi
• MFA, 2007, University of Tennessee

Through digital technology, printmaking, and sculptural interventions, Kumar reconstructs narratives of lost cultural heritage. His 2025 exhibition Living Without the Gods explores colonial expropriation and the illicit idol trade, using porcelain, gold leaf, and 3D-printed fragments.

Scientific Awards:

• National Endowment for the Arts
• 2015 Faculty of the Year Award, SAIC
• Illinois Individual Artists' Grant
• Institute of Culture and Society, OH
• Markem-Imaje International Award

Kumar has participated in residencies at Kriti Gallery, Varanasi, and exhibited globally, including at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum and Seoul Museum of Art. His collaborations with Raja Ram Sharma revive Basholi and Kangra miniature traditions, recontextualizing them to critique historical erasure.