Artist Statement‍

I have lived in numerous cities and three continents, and that movement has shaped how I see the world. My paintings are my diary, notes to myself expressing the memory of locations and people that have mattered. 

In my paintings, figures, places and architectural forms shift between recognition and invention. Some of my paintings realistically reflect places and people once encountered, others dissolve into lines, and blocks of color — the same way memory breaks apart and rearranges itself over time. 

Color plays a central role in my work. I borrow from what my country of birth, India, has given me — warm earth tones, bright pinks, peacock blues, and vibrant pulses of red — hues that echo its people, textiles, landscapes, and built environments. Using oil or acrylic paint, I shift between carefully painted flattened shapes and vigorous brushwork,  painting multiple layers that are scratched with a palette knife to reveal the surface below. My ink and charcoal observational drawings are studies that explore the emotive side of human nature.

Sharmila Kapur is a Washington D.C. based artist whose work derives from a life lived across cultures and geographies. Her paintings are about representing how we carry places and people with us long after we have left them. She draws inspiration from artists like Etel Adnan, Marlene Dumas and Paul Klee. Kapur holds a Master Artist Certificate from The Compass Atelier, Maryland, and two Master of Arts degrees in Psychology from Columbia University, New York and University of Delhi, India, respectively. She has received Best of Show at the Friends of The Yellow Barn Studio Drawing and Water Media Exhibition, Maryland, Peoples Choice Award at Falls Church Gallery, Virginia and First Prize at the Painters Compass Club Artists Exhibition, Maryland. Kapur has exhibited nationally and internationally and her paintings are part of private collections in the United States, Europe and Asia.

2026

• Hill Center Galleries 2026 Regional Juried Show, Washington DC

• Mari Art Collective. Women Who Draw. Winter 2026, juried online show

• 6th Biennial Maryland Regional Juried Exhibition (BMRE), Maryland

• Art4Us 'The Postcard' Exhibition at Gallery B, Maryland

2025

• Washington Studio School A Matter of Pride Juried Exhibit, Washington DC

• Touchstone Gallery Collab Juried Exhibit, Washington DC 

• Art4Us Exhibition at The Gallery Grunewald, Saltsjobaden, Sweden

2024

• Galerie Salle J. Monier, Saint Quentin La Poterie, France

• Art4Us Exhibition, Gallery B, Maryland

• World Bank 1818 Society Art Show, Friendship Gallery, Maryland 

• 43rd Annual Open Painting, Sculpture & Graphics Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, New York

• Yalda Winter Solstice Juried Exhibit, PARS Art Gallery, Virginia 

• Compass Atelier Invitational Juried Exhibition, The Compass Atelier, Maryland

• Flora and Fauna Thriving or Threatened Juried Show, Falls Church Art Gallery, Virginia 

2023

• The Exeter Gallery, Baltimore 

• The Artists Choice Juried Show, Foundry Gallery, Washington DC

• Artesis Galeria, Tavira, Portugal

2022

• Scottsdale Artists’ School Best and the Brightest Juried Art Show, Arizona 

2021

• Art in the Garden, Brookside Gardens, Maryland

SOLO SHOWS

2021 

• Signal Financial Art in the City, (online)

2017

• Woman’s National Democratic Club, Washington DC