“I feel it is important for an artist to evolve and not be stuck to any one theme, form or subject. Over the years, I have evolved from melancholic female figures in the 80s to paintings on wooden windows and strong torsos in the 90s. Now it’s about pure form and design,” states Kanchan Chander.
Born 1957 in New Delhi, she received her formal training in Painting and Printmaking at various institutions and in different continents including the College of Art at Delhi, Kunsthochschule at Berlin, Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris and Art School at Santiago in Chile. Later she joined the Delhi College of Art first on a research fellowship and then as a teacher for a few years. Her work has been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions in India and abroad.
Her earlier work was primarily in print making featuring tribal imagery of the Shakti cult while in her subsequent work she took to collage and brightly painted female torsos, bedecked with sequins, silver leaf and beads, portraying the fertility, the erotic and the sensuousness of female form and her multiple roles in life.
This infatuation with feminine issues and body has now expanded to incorporate other female legends mainly Freda Kahlo, mixing embellishments, photographs, drawing with painting on canvas, wood and other material. Accolades to her credit include AIFCAS Delhi and Print Biennale Bradford UK awards. Mixed media – paper cuttings, sequins, swarovski, laces, appliqués, bindis, stickers, nuts and bolts and much more – is her forte.
The New Delhi-based gallery, Art Positive, just presented a new body of works by the talented artist. In her recent mixed-media work, and the one that instantly marks her apart from contemporaries, is the usage of self portraiture sometimes depicted solo, in a symbiotic relationship with Frida Kahlo, and sometimes with Hindi film heroines.
In the latest series, the works showed the protagonist in bemused stances, were indeed intricate, delicate and intense. She stated: “Frida has been part of my works since last four years. I have admired her strength not only as a woman but also as a strong and bold artist. I relate to her and hence this series is very close to my heart.”
(Information courtesy: Art Positive)
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