Nikhil Sharma
[San Francisco, United States]
Art Yourself Atelier is honored to present "Learning to See," a captivating and distinctive online solo exhibition featuring the profound artistic innovations of Nikhil Sharma, an emerging talent based in San Francisco. With great pleasure, we invite you to explore the exceptional journey of this rising artist, whose work masterfully bridges the realms of technology and traditional craftsmanship. Nikhil Sharma's remarkable ability to intertwine his engineering background with his creative passions offers a unique perspective that both challenges and inspires. Join us as we delve into the transformative artistry of Nikhil Sharma, celebrating his contributions to the contemporary art scene.
Artist's Biography
Nikhil Sharma blends sculpture and painting, creating textured 3D paintings from crumpled canvases glued to cardboard in addition to tree-like wooden sculptures. Raised in a South Asian immigrant community in the heart of the Silicon Valley, he was formally trained as a software engineer. Fueled by the dissatisfaction of his day job, he began his artistic journey creating bespoke furniture, before expanding to painting and sculpture, leading him to primarily source his materials from hardware stores. In contrast to the fast-paced tech environment around him, Sharma’s work invites viewers to slow down, pause, and connect with the present moment embracing themes of presence, contentment, and fluidity. His work has been exhibited across California, and his sculptures and furniture pieces have garnered commissions throughout the Bay Area.
About the Solo Exhibition
Growing up in a South Asian immigrant community in the heart of Silicon Valley, Nikhil Sharma was taught to value external success—primarily career advancement and wealth building. Surrounded by the tech industry’s productivity obsession, he found himself chasing after societal expectations: coding for paychecks, comparing statuses, and measuring worth in tangible results. Raised in this community, he learned only to look, to focus on future achievement, to glance at his current surroundings but never truly see them.
It wasn’t until Nikhil returned to working with his hands through art that he began to see—to be fully present, to engage with his environment instead of letting it pass by. His transition from looking to seeing marked a profound shift in how he experienced the world around him. What he once interpreted as static objects—trees, mountains, flowers—became dynamic, evolving presences. A coastal live oak, a ginkgo tree, and the petals of a rose, which he had passed by without a second thought, suddenly revealed textures, colors, and subtle patterns that were always there but had gone unnoticed.
This exhibition reflects Nikhil’s journey from looking to seeing. Each piece invites the viewer to pause and engage with the moment, just as he has learned to do. The crumpled canvases create ridges and shadows that shift with natural light, inviting a new experience each time they’re viewed. The imperfections in the wooden sculptures echo the natural irregularities that have come to inspire him—showing how, when observed with patience, nothing remains the same, and each moment reveals a new layer of beauty.
In many ways, Nikhil’s art practice is a dialogue with his upbringing. The pressure to succeed financially was a deeply ingrained part of his identity, shaped by both his immigrant community and the broader tech culture surrounding him. Coding, once a passion, became a source of dissatisfaction as he found himself among many software engineers who felt unfulfilled despite their financial success. His practice is not just an escape from the world of tech; it’s a rejection of its narrow fixation on optimizations and economic outcomes, embracing instead the richness of presence, contentment, and fluidity.
Nikhil hopes this exhibition starts a conversation about how the scarcity mindset in South Asian immigrant communities, combined with the high-stakes culture of Silicon Valley, can drive a pursuit of external outcomes at the cost of deeper fulfillment. Through his work, he navigates these influences, embracing risk, passion, and creativity in ways that couldn’t be prioritized in his upbringing. Each piece is an invitation for viewers to slow down and see—truly see—and in that pause, discover something new about both the work and themselves.
His Past Exhibition Experience
2024 · Stanford, United States
South Asian Literature and Arts Festival
2024 · Los Angeles, United States
Seeking Light, The Bridge Arts Foundation
2024 · Benicia, United States
Explorations in Monochromatic Art, Arts Benicia
2024 · High Point, United States
ISFD Innovation and Design, Internation Society of Furniture Designers
2023 · San Francisco, United States
ArtSpan Open Studios, SF ArtSpan, San Francisco, United States