Artist Bio

Manveet Kaur Saluja is a professional artist born and raised in the United States in Long Island, New York.  She studied drawing and painting at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City where she found her teacher John Frederick Murray.  In 1997, SVA presented her with the Silas Rhodes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Illustration and, before completing her B.F.A. she began working as a portrait artist.

Her work hangs in prestigious institutions and in the homes of prominent families.  In 1999 she was unanimously selected by a panel of judges at Columbia University to paint a posthumous portrait of Professor Jeannette Fleischner.  The life-size painting is on permanent display at Teachers College in Manhattan.

In March 2003 Manu received a Centennial Award for artistic achievement from the Sikh Centennial Foundation of Canada.   In June 2002 eleven of her oil portraits were exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. as part of the Sikh Heritage Gala Fundraiser and dinner.   Manu was a finalist in The Artist Magazine's 1999 National Portrait Competition.  Her paintings have been featured in Nishaan Magazine (IV/2002), House Magazine (Sept/Oct 2001), and the Graphis New Talent Annual (1998). Manu is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists

With almost 60% of her portrait commissions coming from Sikhs in the United States and Canada, Manu has created a portfolio filled with accomplished Sikh men and women.  Her clients have included T. Sher Singh (Guelph, Canada), Ishar Singh Bindra (sponsor of the Kuljit Kaur Bindra Chair of Sikh Studies at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York), Sonny Singh Chabra (President and CEO of the AMC corporation in New York City), Paul Singh and Kushwinder Kaur Bagga (Flourtown, PA), Gurvinder Singh Sahni and Gurpreet Singh (Old Westbury, New York).

Her current project is a life-size, full-length portrait of the great Sikh emperor, Maharaja Ranjit Singh.  In preparing for the painting Manu has travelled to London to research the armor and costume of the time, and assembled Sikh armor and a custom model of Ranjit Singh's throne.

Manu lives and works in New York City.  For more information regarding oil portraits, commissions, and other inquiries, call 212-461-4989, or click here.

Manu at work in her studio on a painting of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Honoree Manu Saluja receives a 2003 Centennial Award for Artistic Achievement from the Sikh Centennial Foundation of Canada.

Manu discusses her research on Maharaja Ranjit Singh to a group attending the Sikh Foundation's public seminar on Sikh Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in April 2003.

Participating as a panelist in the Sikh Centennial Foundation's 2003 Youth Forum.

Manu's portraits displayed for guests at the 2002 Sikh Heritage Foundation Gala at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.