Tinged with everyday expressions and awash with passion, Karen Shah's art is exciting, sensual and contemporary.

Cadmium red - a carnally vibrant hue - is what Karen Shah's paintings are awash with. One after another, images of nonchalant women, shadowy silhouettes, fleet past your eyes. See it in quick succession and one painting merges into another forming a 'trail of blood'. This is not to say the images are violent. If red could ever evoke a haunting sense of nostalgia, of moods and moments long forgotten, then this collection called Realism in Red, exemplified it.

The numerous artistic styles that she employs are not only an indication of her intense study of the arts and thus the comfort in imbibing nuances from Renaissance to Realism; it is foremost an indication of the cultural meandering that has brought her art this far. An Indian artist who studied her art in both the UK and Italy, and who now lives in Italy, is to say the least, all about allowing oneself a broad and exciting canvas to experiment and explore.

Karen's art is very much of the here and now. It is of everyday expressions that you walk past on busy roads in bustling cities or quiet moments with friends at home. However, it is the red that spells the magic! Ordinary characters that lurk behind the veil of red, achieve a heightened sense of drama, an almost foreboding spell that magnifies ordinary emotions into poignant moments. Thus there is the Woman in Red 5, voluptuous in perhaps, a stinging second when she turns her back, spurning her love? Or the Nude in Red, amorphous, yet imbued with lyrical sullenness, if at all one can explain the contradiction!

Karen's art is exciting, contemporary and sensual. It is evident that her exhibition, Realism in Red, is a celebration of the unrelenting hue of passion - Red.

- Bandana Tewari