Veer Munshi’s impressive career graph

Veer Munshi was born in Srinagar in 1955, and he now lives and works in Gurgaon. Between his geographical shifts lies a curious history of travel as a student, as a budding artist, and finally as the established member of a diasporic community that was expelled from its homeland by historical circumstances.

Known for a painting-based environment or vice versa, whichever way you look at it, Veer Munshi’s art practice is informed by his extensive and engaged travels; he has visited, among other countries, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, and Greece. His illustrious career spans almost three decades, during which he has lived and worked in Delhi, Srinagar, and Baroda. His practice spans a wide range of media like painting, sculpture, public-art projects, and installation backed by intellectual collaborations.


The artist did his graduation from Kashmir University (1976) and a BFA in Painting from the M S University, Baroda (1981). He has had more than 10 solos, apart from a series of grouop shows in India and abroad. These include ‘Ways of Resistance’ (SAHMAT, New Delhi/ 2002); ‘Art on the Move’, curated by Vivan Sundaram (SAHMAT, New Delhi/ 2002); the 11th Asian Art Biennale (Dhaka/ 2004); ‘Identity Alienation Amity’ (Mumbai/2005); Tehelka’s ‘Art for Freedom’ (London/ 2008); ‘Image, Music and Text’ , curated by Ram Rahman (SAHMAT, New Delhi/ 2009); and ‘ZIP Files’, edited by Ranjit Hoskote (foundation b&g, Mumbai/ 2009).

An exhibition of his works courtesy Latitude 28 and foundation b&g was curated by Ranjit Hoskote. Elaborating on the series, the publisher of foundation b&g, Harsha Bhatkal, had called it 'a powerful statement, in which the artist presents an environment, capturing the violence that surrounds us in the turbulent world today.' A touching photographic series which he publicly showed for the first time, offered a detailed documentation of Pandit houses in a unique way -both (‘The Chamber’and ‘Pandit Houses’) projected as a cry for peace and secularism.