JAPANI – GOND ARTIST of MADHYA PRADESH

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Jangarh Singh Shyam had named his daughter Japani after his visit to Japan which was his one of his favourite countries.

Japani started painting at a very early age and she says her father would always encourage her to paint the way she wanted and never criticized her work. She feels that is the reason why she began to paint with confidence and in 1999, at the age of eleven, she was given the Kamala Devi Award.

Japani’s main motif is the world of animals and birds, their struggle for food, their sense of camaraderie, their different mood. Another motif is the world of rituals, beliefs among the Gonds which she was exposed to when she went to the villages of Pantangarh and sonpur, where her parents Jangarh Shyam and Nankusia shyam came from. Being a city bred girl, she looks at them from a distance and at the same time she feels she is a part of them. Like her brother Mayankh, she has also painted on the world of Baigas, who are still very much an integral part of nature.

Acrylic on canvas 5’x3′ Theme Tigers inside the Deer
Paintings by Jangarh Singh Shyam