The Open Studio / Harish Sharma
Harish Sharma
Human Acclimatized
One wing dark, one pale, both learning a new sky
Rust spreads across the canvas like heat over a dry field.
Someone has scratched circles into it again and again, the way a hand traces a name.
A black wing rises, its tips already warm with brown.
Below it a grey wing drifts, catching orange at its edges.
There is no bird. Only the wings, still holding the shape of flight.
They are taking on the colour of the air they move through.
The work
Harish Sharma paints the lives of people who move to big cities for work. He knows this life from home. His father left Bihar for Delhi to find work. The family followed. Later they built their own house in Haryana. In this acrylic painting two wings float on a rough orange ground. One is black. One is pale grey. Sharma uses them to show a migrant changing to fit a new place. He is studying for a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at Jamia Millia Islamia.
In the artist’s words
“Human Acclimatized explores the psychological transformation of displacement. Merging with a textured, foreign expanse, the contrasting wings symbolise a migrant's evolving identity: blending, adapting and taking on the distinct colours of a newly embraced space.”
- Theme
- Migration and adaptation
- Material
- Acrylic on canvas
- Size
- 60.96 × 76.2 × 2.54 cm
- Year
- 2026
- Edition
- This painting explores human acclimatization—how completely we transform after spending years in a new place until it becomes our permanent residence. The two wings represent this profound shift. The black wing reflects the outsider who first arrives, marked by the unfamiliarity of migration. The white wing captures what happens after long-term immersion, showing how deeply a person melts into the environment, absorbing its rhythm until they are entirely shaped by their new home.
- Framed
- Yes
- About the artist
- Jamia millia islamia
- From
- Faridabad
- Code
- RC-304
