Nalini Malani (born 19 February 1946) is a contemporary Indian artist widely acknowledged to be among the country's first generation of video artists. She works with several mediums which include theater, videos, installations along with

mixed media In visual art, mixed media describes artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different media. Materials used to create mixed media art incl ...

paintings and drawings. The subjects of her creations are deeply influenced by her experience of migration in the aftermath of the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...

. Subsequently, pressing feminist issues have also become a part of her creative output. Malani has evolved a visual language that is iconic, moving from stop motion, erasure animations, reverse paintings and most recently to digital animations, where she draws directly with her finger onto a tablet. Malani made her first video work 'Dream Houses' (1969), as the youngest and only female participant of the Vision Exchange Workshop (VIEW), an experimental multi-disciplinary artist workshop in Bombay (Mumbai) by late artist

Akbar Padamsee Akbar Padamsee (12 April 1928 – 6 January 2020) was an Indian artist and painter, considered one of the pioneers in modern Indian painting along with S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza and M.F. Husain. Over the years he also worked with various mediums ...

. Her works have been showcased at renowned museums across the world, including the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

in New York.

Early life and education

Malani is the only child of Satni Advani (Sindhi

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

) and Jairam Malani (

Theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...

). Born in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

(Sindh) in what was then

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(now

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

) in 1946, Malani's family sought refuge in India during the

. They relocated to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

(then Calcutta), where her father worked with

Tata Airlines Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the sa ...

(later

Air India Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the ...

) and relocated to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

in 1954, where they lived in a colony built for displaced Sindhis. Her family's experience of leaving behind their home and becoming refugees deeply informs Malani's artworks. Malani studied Fine Arts in Mumbai and obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts from

Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art The Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art (Sir J. J. School of Art) is the oldest art institution in Mumbai, India, and is affiliated with the University of Mumbai. The school grants bachelor's degrees in fine art and sculpture, and Master's de ...

in 1969. From 1964-67, she had a studio at the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute, which used to be located at Breach Candy,

(then Bombay), where artists, musicians, dancers and theater persons worked individually and collectively. It was here that she had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with artists from allied forms of artistic practice like theatre. She received a scholarship from the French Government to study fine arts in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

from 1970 to 1972. She was also a recipient of two scholarships from the

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

, as well as a grant in 1989 for travel and work in the United States.

Career

After her graduation, she spent a few years working with photography and film. The themes she explored during this period dealt with the turbulent time that India was experiencing politically and socially, as well the deepening literacy of moving image by its population. In the initial part of her career, Malani mostly focused on paintings - acrylic on canvas & watercolour on paper. She produced a realistic socially based portrayal of Contemporary India. She continued to explore techniques such as the reverse painting method (taught to her in the late-80s by

Bhupen Khakhar Bhupen Khakhar (also spelled Bhupen Khakkar, 10 March 1934 – 8 August 2003) was an Indian artist. He was a member of the Baroda Group and gained international recognition for his work as "India's first 'Pop' artist." Works Khakhar was a sel ...

), which she would recurrently use in her future work. She was disappointed with the lack of acknowledgement that women artists had to face in India and resolved to bring them together for a group show to promote the sense of solidarity. In 1985, she curated the first exhibition of Indian female artists, in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. This led to a series of traveling exhibitions that were taken to public spaces as an attempt to go beyond the elitist atmosphere of the art gallery. The sectarian violence that hit India in the early 1990s after the

demolition of the Babri Masjid The demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegally carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, had ...

triggered a sudden shift in her artwork. The renewed religious conflict that had proven to be recurring (bringing back memories of the Partition) pushed her artistic endeavours past the boundaries of the surface and into space. Her earlier foray into performance art and her keen interest in Literature brought new dimensions to her art. She is often counted amongst the earliest to transition from traditional painting to new media work. In 2013, she became the first Asian woman to receive the Arts & Culture

Fukuoka Prize The is an award established by the city of Fukuoka and the Fukuoka City International Foundation (formerly The Yokatopia Foundation) to honor the outstanding work of individuals or organizations in preserving or creating Asian culture. There are ...

for her "consistent focus on such daring contemporary and universal themes as religious conflict, war, oppression of women and environmental destruction."

Notable works

For two-dimensional works, she uses both oil paintings and watercolors. Her other inspirations are her visions from the realm of memory, myth and desire. The rapid brush style evokes dreams and fantasies. Malani's video and installation work allowed her to shift from strictly real space to a combination of real space and virtual space, moving away from strictly object-based work. Her video work often references divisions, gender, and cyborgs. Malani roots her identity as female and as Indian, and her work might be understood as a way for her identity to confront the rest of the world. She often references Greek and Hindu mythology in her work. The characters of 'destroyed women' like

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jaso ...

Cassandra Cassandra or Kassandra (; Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, , also , and sometimes referred to as Alexandra) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be belie ...

and

Sita Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...

feature often in her narrative. Her multifaceted oeuvre can be broadly classified under two categories; Her experiments with visual media and the moving image like ''Utopia'' (1969-1976), ''Mother India'' (2005), ''In Search of Vanished Blood'' (2012); Her ephemeral and in-situ works such as ''City of Desires'' (1992), ''Medea as Mutant'' (1993/2014), ''The Tables have turned'' (2008). Although her work talks of violence and conflict, her main intent is collective catharsis.

''Dream Houses'' (1969)

Malani's first experimental film made at the pioneering Vision Exchange Workshop (VIEW) — the brainchild of late artist

— drew inspiration from utopian modern Indian architecture. Made using cutting edge photographic equipment available at the Workshop, it features an exciting use of a cardboard maquette, different light sources, primary colour filters, and a Mamiyaflex camera. For this path-breaking work, Malani drew on the 'ideological possibilities of modern architecture', looking to the work of renowned architects Charles Correa and

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing ...

, and blending in her learnings from

Johannes Itten Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (''Staatliches Bauhaus'') school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feinin ...

's colour theories along with Moholy-Nagy’s Vision in Motion.

"The subject of Dream Houses is the idealism and hope that modernism brought during the Nehruvian period, in which poverty and housing problems in modern India could be solved through a master plan for urban space." — Nalini Malani

'Dream Houses' was shown at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) (2014), the Goethe Institute, Mumbai, (2019) and the MoMa, New York,(2022), after being 'lost' for over 50 years.

''Unity in Diversity'' (2003)

Malani's 2003 video play, ''Unity in Diversity'', is based on the renowned 19th century Indian painter

Raja Ravi Varma Raja Ravi Varma ( ml, രാജാ രവിവർമ്മ; 29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art. His works are one of the best examples ...

's ''Galaxy of Musicians'', with the overt theme of nationalistic unity displayed through the garb of eleven musicians from different parts of India seemingly playing in harmony. Malani makes a statement on this idealized version of unity by incorporating later histories of violence into that image.

''Mother India'' (2005)

The video installation was inspired by an essay by the sociologist Veena Das titled "Language and Body: Transactions in the Construction of Pain". It is a synchronised five screen wall-to-wall projection combines archival footage with poetic and painterly image to tell the story of how Indian Nationalism was built using the bodies of women as metaphors for the nation. The work speaks of women as "mutant, de-gendered and violated beyond imagination." The Partition of India and the Gujarat Riots of 2002 are the central events that are referenced in this installation, as there was a sharp increase in the violation of women in these periods.

''In Search of Vanished Blood'' (2012)

This installation which was first produced for the 13th edition of

Documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural ...

consists of five larger rotating

Mylar BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and a ...

cylinders (metaphorically referring to Buddhist prayer wheels) reverse painted with images of soldiers, animals, gods and guns. The shadow play caused by this rotation tells the story of senseless bloodshed especially narrating the story of India since the partition and highlighting the plight of the dispossessed/tribal communities whose lives are drastically affected by developmental decisions made by the government.

Exhibitions

* 1993 ''- Medea'',

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange ...

Max Mueller Bhavan, Bombay (now Mumbai), India * 1996 - ''Medea'',

Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, India * 1997 - ''The Job'',

Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, India * 1999 - ''Remembering Toba Tek Singh'', Prince of Wales Museum (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya), Mumbai, India * 2002 - ''Hamletmachine'',

New Museum of Contemporary Art The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

, New York, USA *2005 - ''Exposing the Source: The Painting of Nalini Malani'', Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts, USA *2007 - ''Nalini Malani'',

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

, Dublin, Ireland * 2009 - ''Nalini Malani'',

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is a contemporary art museum at New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. The gallery receives core funding from the New Plymouth District Council. Govett-Brewster is recognised internationally for contemporary art. Hi ...

, New Plymouth, New Zealand * 2010 - ''Splitting the Other'',

Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts The Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts (french: Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, MCBA) is an art museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Collection The museum was created by private initiative in 1841, with funds provided by the artist Marc-Louis Arlaud, wh ...

, Lausanne, Switzerland *2012 - ''Mother India: Videoplays by Nalini Malani'',

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

, Sydney, Australia * 2013 - ''Listening to the Shades'', Centre de la Gravure, La Louvière, Belgium * 2013 - ''Listening to the Shades,'' Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, Mumbai, India * 2014 - ''You can't keep Acid in a Paper Bag'',

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is a private modern and contemporary art museum with locations in New Delhi and Noida. Established in 2010, it is India's first private museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. The core collection of ...

, New Delhi, India

* 2014 - ''In Search of Vanished Blood,'' co-commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and 14-18 Now, WW1 Centenary Art commissions,

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...

, Edinburgh, United Kingdom * 2014 - Engadiner Museum, St. Moritz, Switzerland * 2014 - ''Transgressions'', Asia Society Museum, New York, USA * 2015 - ''Stories Untold'', Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port-Louis, Mauritius * 2016 - ''In Search of Vanished Blood,'' Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA * 2017 - ''Transgressions'', ''

,'' Amsterdam, Netherlands * 2017/18 - ''The Rebellion of the Dead: Retrospective 1969-2018 Part I'',

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris, France Nalini Malani, The Rebellion of the Dead, 2017

* 2018 - ''The Rebellion of the Dead: Retrospective 1968-2018 Part II'',

Castello di Rivoli The Castle of Rivoli is a former Residence of the Royal House of Savoy in Rivoli (Metropolitan City of Turin, Italy). It is currently home to the Castello di Rivoli – Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, the museum of contemporary art of Turin. In 19 ...

, Turin, Italy * 2019 - ''Can You Hear Me?'', Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, India * 2020 - ''The Witness'', Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, Mumbai, India * 2020 - ''You Don't Hear Me'', Miró Foundation, Barcelona, Spain * 2020 - ''Can You Hear Me?'', Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK * 2020 - ''Utopia!?'', Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal * 2021 - ''Can You Hear Me?'', Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga'','' Spain

''Through the Looking Glass''

From 1987 - 89, Malani organised 'Through The Looking Glass' with her contemporaries, the women artists

Madhvi Parekh Madhvi Parekh (born 1942) is an Indian contemporary artist living in New Delhi. Her work revolves around childhood memory, women’s craft, folk art and Indian myths. Although her inspirations are traditional, her style is contemporary as she ...

Nilima Sheikh Nilima Sheikh (born 18 November 1945) is a visual artist based in Baroda, India. Since the mid-80s, Sheikh has done extensive research about traditional art forms in India, advocated for the sustainability of the practice of traditional painte ...

, and

Arpita Singh Arpita Singh (''née'' Dutta; born 22 June 1937) is an Indian artist. Known to be a figurative artist and a modernist, her canvases have both a story line and a carnival of images arranged in a curiously subversive manner. Her artistic approach ...

. The exhibition, featuring works by all four artists, travelled to five non-commercial venues across India. Inspired by a meeting in 1979 with

Nancy Spero Nancy Spero (August 24, 1926 – October 18, 2009) was an American visual artist. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Spero lived for much of her life in New York City. She married and collaborated with artist Leon Golub. As both artist and activist, Nancy ...

May Stevens May Stevens (June 9, 1924 – December 9, 2019) was an American feminist artist, political activist, educator, and writer. Early life and education May Stevens was born in Boston to working-class parents, Alice Dick Stevens and Ralph Stanley ...

and

Ana Mendieta Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. Born in Havana, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961. Ear ...

at the

AIR Gallery A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the first all female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time i ...

in New York (the first all-female artists’ cooperative gallery in the US), Malani had planned to organise an exhibition entirely of works by women artists, which failed to materialise due to lack of interest and support.

Reception

Awards

* 1970-72: French Government Scholarship for Fine Arts Study in Paris * 2010: Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts,

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

, USA * 2013: Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize for Contemporary Art, Fukuoka, Japan * 2014: St. Moritz Art Masters Lifetime Achievement Award, St. Moritz, Switzerland * 2016: Asia Arts Game Changer, Asia Society, Hong Kong * 2019:

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

Prize,

Fundació Joan Miró The Fundació Joan Miró ( ; "Joan Miró Foundation, Centre of Studies of Contemporary Art") is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). History The idea for the foundation ...

, Barcelona, Spain

Fellowships

* 1984-89: Art Research Fellowship, Government of India * 1989: USIA Fellowship,

Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise devoted to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers through residency programs, to the propagation of aesthetic values and experience, and to the restoratio ...

, Provincetown, Massachusetts, USA * 2020: Contemporary Fellowship,

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

, London, UK

Residencies

* 1988: Kasauli Art Centre, Kasauli, India * 1999: Lasalle-SIA, Singapore * 1999-2000: Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan * 2003: Civitella Ranieri, Umbertide, Italy * 2005: Lucas Art Residencies, Montalvo, California, USA

Collections

Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum is the oldest museum in Mumbai. Situated in the vicinity of Byculla Zoo, Byculla East, it was originally established in 1855 as a treasure house of the decorative and industrial arts, and was later renamed in honour of ...

, Mumbai *

Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation The Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF) is a private, not-for-profit organization located in Mumbai, Indian with its core interest in promoting the preservation, exhibition, education, and research of post-colonial Indian modern art. The col ...

(JNAF), Mumbai *

Lalit Kala Akademi The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of Art (LKA) is India's national academy of fine arts. It is an autonomous organisation, established in New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, in ...

, New Delhi *

National Gallery of Modern Art National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(NGMA), New Delhi *

MoMa Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; ...

The Museum of Modern Art, New York *

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Galler ...

, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia *

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a public deemed research university located in Mumbai, India that is dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the ...

(TIFR), Mumbai * Tate, Britain

References

External links

Official website

Profile
on

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malani, Nalini 1946 births Living people Women artists from West Bengal Artists from Karachi Sindhi people 20th-century Indian painters Artists from Kolkata 20th-century Indian women artists Artists from Mumbai Religious artists Indian women contemporary artists Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art alumni