Nilima Sheikh was born in 1945 in New Delhi. She studied history at the Delhi University (1962-65) and painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda. (MA Fine, 1971). She has taught painting at the Faculty between 1977 and 1981. Nilima Sheikh held her first solo exhibition in New Delhi in 1983, and has shown her work widely since then, her practice has embraced various kinds of painting, from the hand-held miniature to the construct at an architectural scale, and from conventionally hung paintings to scrolls and screens for the theatre stage. Prominent exhibtions include solo shows m Bombay, Delhi Ahmedabad (1983, '84, '85, '93 and '95), Group Exhibition, New Delhi (1974), Pictorial Space, New Delhi (1977), New Contemporaries, Bombay (1978), touring exhibition in West Gertnany (1982), Through the Looking Glass, Bhopal, New Delhi, Bangalore, Bombay (1987 - 89), Dispossession, Africa’s, First Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa (1995) and The Second Asia-Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (1966). Nilima Sheikh has travelled and lectured on Indian art at many venues in India and abroad. Her research on the Pichwalis of Nathdwara (1986-87) was supported by the National Handloom and Handicraft Museum. She has been part of Indian artists' delegations to Bangladesh, China, South Africa and Australia. Her interest in theatre design resulted in the painted sets for Vivadi's 1993 production of Umrao, performed in New Delhi and Bombay. Nilima Sheikh lives and works in Baroda.