Sabrina Shah

Sabrina Shah is an expressionistic painter known for her energetic and contemporary works which never fail to challenge and inspire. The award-winning artist populates her paintings with groups of animal-faced anthropomorphic figures who don’t quite fit; they are engaged in the process of looking at those who are looking at them. Their presence and creation offer an acute commentary on our tolerance of mistakes in society.

Sabrina Shah’s Early Career and Style

Sabrina, who grew up in Worcestershire, recently completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art. Previously, she studied at University College London and the Royal Drawing School. The artist is known and celebrated for her exaggerated techniques; heavy layers, intense glossy liquids, expansive characters that seem to overflow from the canvas. Key themes in Sabrina’s work include vulnerability and consumerism. Expulsion, ingestion, and the theatre of the dinner table are also recurring motifs in her work. She explores these concepts through scenes of cooking and eating, investigating how we indulge, digest and discharge shame, intolerance, struggle, and self-disclosure in modern life.

Projects and Shows

Sabrina has featured in several solo and group shows across the UK including at South London Gallery, Brixton, London, and Castlegate House Gallery, Cumbria. She has undertaken multiple artist residencies internationally. The artist was shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize in 2010 and has since won The Heart of England Prize (2011).