Nikhileshwar Baruah was born in Assam in 1967 to a family of theatre artists He was passionate about painting since childhood and joined MS University in Baroda to do his Bachelors followed by a Masters in Fine Art He later joined as a lecturer at his alma mater where he continued to work until recently

Baruah likes to work with watercolours The versatility of the medium allows him to experiment with shape, form and texture on the canvas Painting, for Baruah, is a means to express his discontent with the sad socio-political state of the Indian society He is appalled by communal violence in the country and tries to capture the trauma and anguish of his fellow citizens through his works

Some his works portray a human figure against the backdrop of a vast empty landscape painted in a fiery red or deep hues of blue They often border on abstract and surreal, and tend to depict the feelings of isolation and loneliness Historic events like political tensions between India and Pakistan have been recurrent themes in his work

Baruah held his first exhibition in Mumbai in 1995, followed by a solo show at Prithvi in 1997 He has shown extensively in group shows at Baroda and was honored with the Artist of the Year award at the Harmony show in 2000 He also won the Unesco scholarship to for the European Ceramic Work Centre, Netherlands Nikhileshwar Baruah lives and works in Baroda