Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Curriculum Vitae

Vasudha Thozhur is a painter who is currently based in Baroda. She was born in Mysore in 1956 and educated at the College of Arts and Crafts, Madras, and at the School of Art and Design, Croydon, UK. She worked in Madras for many years, between 1981 - 1997.

Besides participation in exhibitions in the country and abroad, institutional work has involved lectures/teaching/workshops as visiting faculty at MSU, Baroda, NID in Ahmedabad, and IICD, Jaipur.

A recent grant from the India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore, supported a research project, ‘The Himmat Workshops’, that looked at ways of rooting art practice in ground realities as experienced in India. It involved collaborating with Himmat, an activist organization based in Vatva, Ahmedabad.


Other interests include writing, and music.


Chronology 2009 – 1996

In 2009

‘Bapu’ - an exhibition curated by Gayatri Sinha and shown at Saffronart, Bombay

In 2008

Workshop at the media lab, Uttarayan, Baroda.


Working on a new body of paintings through the year.

Seminar/workshop organized by Majlis, Bombay, at Pondicherry entitled ‘Logistics of Perceptions: Images from Contested Zones’

Residencies ( illustrated talks) at Vidyasagar Art Centre, Hyderabad, curated by Rasna Bhushan and supported by Max Mueller Bhavan and Alliance Francaise.

In 2007

Solo shows at Sakshi Gallery Mumbai and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi.

New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India, curated by Betty Seid for the Chicago Cultural Centre.

Tiger by the Tail, curated by Elinor Gadon, Wendy Tarlow Kaplan and Roobina Karode for the Women’s Studies Research Centre, Brandeis University, Waltham (Massachusetts) US .

Horn Please: Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art, curated by Bernard Fibicher and Suman Gopinath, at the Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland.

Edge of Desire, curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, travels to NGMA, Bombay.

Experimenta 2007 ( Bangalore and Bombay): Screening of ‘Cutting Chai’, one of the films edited from video footage shot by the participants of the Himmat Workshops, a collaborative project funded by the India Foundation for the Arts.

Participation in group shows.

Has served as external examiner, Painting, MSU, since 2004.

In 2006

Residency at Khoj, New Delhi, to compile the output from the IFA funded project.

A package of six short videos were edited from footage shot by the participants, and a trial exhibit mounted at the Khoj premises in October. Audio-visual presentation at Khoj and at The School of Art and Aesthetics, JNU.

Edge of Desire travels to New Delhi and is shown at the NGMA.

Participation in group shows.

In 2005

Fieldwork, (in Vatva, Ahmedabad) in relationship to a collaborative project together with Himmat, an activist organization funded by the India Foundation for the Arts. The project aimed at building a visual archive, post - 2002, in different media, created by a group of survivors of the communal conflict early that year. This involved monthly trips to Ahmedabad between January 2005 – June 2006.

Lecture at Mica Mudra Institute, organized by the IFA.

In 2004

Traveling show “Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India” curated by Chaitanya Sambrani and supported by Art Gallery of Western Australia and The Asia Society, New York

Audio visual presentation at the Little Theatre, NCPA, Bombay.

Audio visual presentation at the UGC National Seminar “Issues of Art and Activism: the Artist and the Historian” at The Dept.of Art History and Aesthetics, MSU Baroda.

Grant from the India Foundation for the Arts for a collaborative project ‘ the Himmat Workshops’.

Visiting faculty at IICD, Jaipur between 2002 – 2004.

In 2003

‘Diverge’ curated by Geeta Kapur and Chaitanya Sambrani at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay.

‘Sub-terrain’ curated by Geeta Kapur at the House of World Cultures, Berlin.

‘The Story of Five Posters’, at The Canberra Contemporary Art Space , as a guest exhibit in relationship to ‘Witnessing to Silence: Art and Human Rights’, an Australian National University Humanities Research Centre Project.

In 2002

‘The Banyan City’, Nazar Art Gallery, Baroda.

‘Transfigurations’, curated by Yashodhara Dalmia at the Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

‘Creative Space’, curated by Sakshi Gallery, at the Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

‘Voices Against Violence’, Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda.

In 2001

Solo Show ‘Secret Life’, at Art Inc. Gallery, New Delhi and

Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore.

Visiting Faculty at NID, Ahmedabad.


TEACHING RESIDENCIES AND WORKSHOPS (selected) before 2001:

In 2000

Visiting artist (audio-visual presentations and tutorials) at art schools in France, in :
Cergy Pontoise
Caen
Tours
Le Havre
Chatellerault


In 1999

Workshop at the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad.

In 1998

Workshop in the Department of Painting, M.S. University, Baroda.

In 1996

Cumbria College of Art and Design, Carlisle.
Charlotte Mason College, Lancaster University, Ambleside.

GRANTS (selected) before 2001:


In 1996

French Government Scholarship.

Charles Wallace Grant to work at Gasworks Studios.


In 1989

Ministry of Culture Fellowship for Artists.


In 1988

Central Lalit Kala Akademi Research Grant.



ARTISTS' RESIDENCIES (selected) before 2001:

In 2000

Khoj International Artists’ Workshops, New Delhi.


In 1998

Kuona Trust (Nairobi National Museum), Kenya.


In 1996

Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris.
Shaddon Mills Visual Arts Centre, Carlisle.

Charlotte Mason College, Lancaster University, Ambleside.
Gasworks Studios, London.


Other interests include traveling, writing and music.

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