Uma Shankar Shah

Uma Shankar Shah's graphic works depict the images of nature and Hindu mythologies appealing for the preservation of natural and cultural heritage of Nepal. He incorporates the forms and contents of early Nepali religious and folk arts. In Shah's early prints-etching, woodcuts, lithographs, etc,-we find the abstraction of nature in simplified form, dominated by the recurrent images of the gliding fishes in particular and life under water in general. Nevertheless, themes drawn from the realms of philosophy mythology and religion and folk culture also feature in them.

He is concerned about fast eroding spiritual values and ancient art works. He expresses his views regarding the religious traditions, and social practices, in the light of spiritual thought in the context of Kathmandu valley. He captures the images of Nepali architecture, and sculptures of various gods and goddesses, and the images of devotees worshipping the deities with various colours and flowers. His cityscapes are not realistic but imaginative. For the sake of beauty and variety, adds the new images of various architectures and combines them in exotic manner. The representation instantly dazzles the viewers and renews their perception. Rather than the significance of the form, the artist stresses the beauty of the form itself.

Uma Shankar Shah's compositions also represent the image of meditating yogis seated on the earth-like round shape. The size and the proportion of the images are surrealist because the image of the earth is condensed whereas the figure of the yogis are amplified. The position of the earth as the seat of the yogi implies that the enlightened yogi has controlled the mundane desires of the world, and they are no longer important in his consciousness. When he is united with cosmic being he finds the world within himself. Despite the use of surrealist form, the artist reintegrates one of the themes of traditional Nepali arts, that is, the union of individual self with cosmic being through meditation.