Born in 1986 in Karnataka, Shailesh B.R. received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, specialising in painting, from the Chamarajendran Academy of Visual Arts, Mysore, and has a post-graduate diploma from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda. 

Shailesh’s solo exhibitions include The Last Brahmin at the prestigious Villa Arson in Nice, France (2020); virtual shows titled Shooting Stars (2022) and Notes to Self (2020), as well as Displacement (2021) at Delhi Contemporary Art Week and Tarka(2017) at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. His work was exhibited at Savvy Contemporary, Berlin, in a group curation titled Magical Hackerism, or the Elasticity of Resilience. He has also participated in other prominent group shows, including Colomboscope, Sri Lanka, and Abu Dhabi edition (2022); Hub India, Turin, Italy (2021); Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2021, 2019, 2018); Birla Academy of Arts & Culture, Kolkata (2021); Busan Video Art Festival, South Korea (2021); BIG Biennale, Geneva (2019); Shrine Empire, New Delhi (2018); Sensorium, Sunaparanta, Goa (2018); Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai (2017); Students Biennale, Kochi–MuzirisBiennale (2015); the Center for International Modern Art, Kolkata (2014); and Gallery Espace, New Delhi (2014), among others.

In 2023, Shailesh was a resident at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. In 2021, he was a finalist for the Sovereign Art Prize and exhibited his work at the finalists’ exhibition Hong Kong. He was awarded the FICA Emerging Artist Award in 2016 and the Inlaks Fine Arts Award in 2014. He has completed residencies at Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea (2022); Villa Arson, Nice, France (2020); the Embassy of Foreign Artists Residency, Geneva, Switzerland (2019); and Atelier Mondial / Pro Helvetia – Swiss Art Council, Basel, Switzerland (2016), among other national residencies. 

 The artist lives and works in New Delhi, India.