Gurpreet Singh Mankoo

"Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a Guru, none can cross over to the other shore."
-Guru Nanak

From a humble Sikh family in the village of Jagraon in Punjab, Naqqash Gurpreet Singh Mankoo was brought up with the teaching of Guru which inspired him to paint religious themes in a realist art form. At a young age, he trained and became an apprentice to Sardar Dilbagh Singh, a realistic painter from Ludhiana. Gurpreet Mankoo gained recognition for his realist style of portraiture which led to him opening a family-led ‘Mankoo Art Gallery’ at his residence, so as to facilitate the demand for his works. He ventured into the new medium and technique of Mohrakashi in 2013 when he began working on the restoration and conservation of Shri Darbar Sahib, which was organized by Namita Jaspal, a Conservator and Consultant from Chandigarh. This led him in 2015 to take up restoration of the figurative motifs on the interior walls of the Krishan Mandir, a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Gurdaspur. He has exhibited his works at the ‘83rd All India Exhibition of Arts’, the Indian Academy of Fine Arts in Amritsar, the ‘4th International Art Exhibition’, India-Netherlands at WTC Hague Art Gallery, Netherlands, National Miniature Camp, Lalit Kala Akademi Art Galleries of Rabindra Bhawan in New Delhi. Currently, he is engaged in miniature art based on mythological themes in Kangra tradition and in Das Gurus (ten gurus) in the Dakshini style of miniatures in Bengaluru.