Lalitha Shankar grew up in the Tamil Nadu region of India. She traveled to the United States to pursue her MFA in sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD and later came to work at the Johnson Atelier in Hamilton, New Jersey. She currently resides in Bangalore, India and has received numerous awards and honors for sculpture in both her native country and the United States which include the Rinehart Award from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD; Tamil Nadu State Art Organization Award, Madras, India; Works-in-Progress grant, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions on three continents, a selection of which includes the Stratamon Group Exhibition in Brugge, Belgium; Rinehart Hundred: The Contemporary Years, Baltimore, MD; a solo exhibition at the Johnson Atelier, Hamilton, NJ; The South of the World – The Other Contemporary Art, organized by the Ente Mostra Nazionale di Pittura in Marsala, Italy; a group exhibit of the work of contemporary female Indian artists sponsored by the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India among many others. Her work is represented in various public and private collections such as the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida; Alliance Francais, Bangalore, India; Madras Museum, Madras, India; the Central Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India; and the Regional Lalit Kala Academy, Madras, India.