Shanti Shea An (b. 1993) is an artist based in Sydney, Australia. She studied painting at the School of Art & Design at the Australian National University (2013-16), where she graduated with First Class Honours and the University Medal. In 2019, she graduated with a Master of Art History & Curatorial Studies (Advanced), writing her thesis on architectural and pictorial thresholds in seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, for which she earned a Masters Prize for Excellence. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University, where she is working on a practice-led research project on the relationship between painting and textuality.
Her practice is concerned with how images are read and translated when submitted to the process of painting. The images she works with are drawn from a range of sources—mass media, art history, and personal photographs—with the act of painting suggesting a kind of equivalence across these categories. She deals with ambiguity and multiplicity in images, with many of her paintings suggesting something that has been taken out of context, interrupted, or suspended in mid-air. Characterised by an atmosphere of deceptive calm or quiet unease, the paintings linger on narrative gaps and potential openings.
Shea An has held solo exhibitions in Sydney and Canberra and has participated in group exhibitions across Australia and internationally in Hangzhou, China. Alongside her studio practice, she is also a Sessional Academic at the Australian National University.
Her practice is concerned with how images are read and translated when submitted to the process of painting. The images she works with are drawn from a range of sources—mass media, art history, and personal photographs—with the act of painting suggesting a kind of equivalence across these categories. She deals with ambiguity and multiplicity in images, with many of her paintings suggesting something that has been taken out of context, interrupted, or suspended in mid-air. Characterised by an atmosphere of deceptive calm or quiet unease, the paintings linger on narrative gaps and potential openings.
Shea An has held solo exhibitions in Sydney and Canberra and has participated in group exhibitions across Australia and internationally in Hangzhou, China. Alongside her studio practice, she is also a Sessional Academic at the Australian National University.