Japani Shyam was born in 1988 to celebrated Gond artist Mr. Jangan Singh Shyam, an indigenous artist of great renown. He was invited on several occasions to Japan and being close to his heart, he bestowed its namesake on his daughter. Japani grew up among paints and colours and hardly realized when it became her own language. She was given the opportunity to be creative at a very young age as paints and paper became her pass time.
Although this artistic milieu was predominant in her home and domestic affairs, Japani took an active interest in learning her father’s art and would observe him at great lengths. Slowly yet surely she grew into an artist herself and began to understand the nuances of composition, colour and painting.
Japani’s awards include the Kamladevi Award, Prafulla Dhanukar State Silver Award in Folk Art and the FICCI Delhi Young Woman Achiever Award. She has exhibited her works in Ahemdabad, Chemould Gallery (Mumbai), Alliance Francaise Gallery (Bhopal), the 56th National Exhibition of Arts (Lalit Kala Academy), IIC and several other galleries in New Delhi. Japani has attended art camps, workshops and residencies in New Delhi, Bhopal, Mangalore, Kochi, Thissur, Bangalore, Bandhavgarh, Srinagar, Guwahati, Udaipur, Dehradun, Bhubaneswar and in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Japani lives and works in Bhopal.
