View the show on our Artsy Page – Click Here

Art Heritage presents a group show of established and emerging female and male artists who respond to the idea of Imagining Women.

Both male and female artists have engaged with the female form – the male gaze has tended to see the woman in an idealized form and as an object of desire, an approach that women have found unacceptable. Women artists on the other had, especially from the 1960’s onwards, began by questioning assumptions of womanhood and provided alternative representations of themselves, challenging the dominance of men in both art and society, in order to gain recognition and equality. Using a variety of mediums – including painting, performance art and crafts, historically considered “women’s work” – feminist art has transitioned from presenting an embodied female experience to focusing on psychoanalysis and post modern theory that examines the body in a more intellectually removed manner. Side-by-side women’s art has enlarged its subject matter to include issues related to race, class, forms of privilege, gender identity and fluidity.

Art works in this exhibition depict female form in several ways, from representations that relate to basic form as in Akbar Padamsee’s black and white photographs of bare female bodies, K G Subramanyan’s expressive and colourful audience facing figure or Jai Zharotia’s dancing, acrobatic skeletal female figures, to a nuanced unpacking of what it means to be a woman, as showcased in both Seema Kohli’s mythical women who embody fecundity, inner strength and creative germination and Kanchan Chander’s empowered, confident woman, one who exudes positivity in the form of the Supreme Being or a Devi. Arpana Caur’s paintings and etchings on the other hand show the struggles of a woman and her ability to transcend obstacles with grace and poise placed in front of her, while in Sunanda Khajuria’s paintings that explore the liminal zone that exists between dreams and reality, a close-up of the female face and torso is every present, surrounded by motifs representing freedom and desire that are indicative of a young woman’s aspirations. In contrast to the overtly female images, Anupam Sud and Arun Pandit figures are distinctively androgynous, while some Ira Roy’s paintings represent the duality of the sexes within a single figure.

In addition to viewing the works online, individual works can be viewed in-person at Art Heritage (by appointment).

Date

9 Jan - 19 Mar 2021

Artists

Group Show

Medium

Various Mediums