Shanthi Chandrasekar is a Maryland artist who has been drawing and painting since early childhood. Her interest in understanding different media has led her to experiment with drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking and papermaking. She has also been trained in the traditional art forms of Kolam and Tanjore Style painting. While many of her works are influenced by her Indian heritage, her true inspiration comes from the mystery and majesty of the world around her; her muse lives where the scientific overlaps with the spiritual.

Shanthi’s works have been displayed in a variety of locations through the Washington D.C. area, New York City, India and most recently at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Lantern Gallery. She has won the Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award 2013 and 2016 for Works on Paper. She was awarded the Individual Artist grants from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, MD in 2009, 2013 and 2016. She also won the Maryland Traditions Master Apprentice Award to teach Kolam drawing in 2010. She was invited to draw Kolams as a performance at Illuminasia, the gala reopening of Freer and Sackler in 2017. Her works have been included in the DC Art Bank (2013-17), Inova Schar Cancer Institute and Montgomery County (2018) permanent collections. She has ventured into book illustration and has illustrated for the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Katha Sagar: Ocean of Stories and the SSVT’s Sri Ramanujan-An Illustrated Biography.

As a multimedia artist, Shanthi has experimented with stone, wood and paper to create sculptures that explore concepts like space, time and energy. Her art-making process usually consists of exploration and experimentation of known concepts with creative possibilities using media that will best communicate the idea. It is a combination of precise scientific enquiry with the freedom of artistic license. Her working method also varies from highly planned beginnings to random mark making and incorporating unexpected path changers along the way. This free flow approach leads to new possibilities and new directions, thus keeping her constantly excited about her work.

She is currently the Exhibits Coordinator for the galleries at the Takoma Park Community Center. She works from her studio at Studio B, 7475 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland.