Amrita Shah is an emerging artist based in Detroit. An automotive engineer by profession, Amrita has always been drawn to painting to make sense of the world around her, and inside her. What was once a hobby to express her emotions, has now become the beginning of a new identity as an artist.
Amrita’s inspiration to start painting happened gradually, and mostly after being dissatisfied in her career as an engineer. Her confidence to pursue this new field cemented after she attended a summer painting course at Parsons’ NYC in 2024. Being self-taught, the formal training gave her some much-needed structure to her thoughts and ideas.
Amrita’s work is an expression of her long-standing battle with mental health. She is drawn to dark themes; where she uses subtleties in colour and variations in brushwork to create haunting images that strive to evoke a deep emotion in the audience. In her work, Amrita uses darkness diversely — to depict the loneliness of an unmade bed, or to distort perspectives in the freedom of post-pandemic concerts in Detroit, or explore herself through rough strokes in self-portraiture, or to juxtapose the vividity of colour against a darker emotional theme, where brightness serves to amplify the underlying sense of unease.
Since embarking on this new career, her painting ‘longing’ was selected for a gallery showcase “A Window Into…” at La Ventana café in Detroit. In the future works, Amrita is experimenting with diverse styles and genres in hopes to widen her horizon. She hopes to reach others with similar struggles, to convey a kinship and show them they are not alone.