Nalini Malani
Karachi, Pakistan
Nalini Malani is an artist who has managed to incorporate her cultural origins into the language of Western art with great originality and poetry. Often the object of her works is ethnic and religious conflict. The analysis of this conflict becomes the emblem for the analysis of all conflicts.
Even though her work is so sincerely social and politic, Nalini Malani never forgets to manifest a very strong poetical relevance. Her works are always inspired by historical documents and take this inspiration to embrace the human condition in a wider context. Above all in her last phase, the artist has enriched her political concepts with elements of a deeper spirituality.
The figures of men and animals are melting into each other in a
continuous metamorphosis that can be perceived in her large
canvasses, where the painted figures represent the multiple
aspects of a form in progress..
Born in 1946 Karachi, Pakistan. Lives and work between Bombay and Amsterdam
1964-67
While still a student, had a studio at the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute, Bombay, where artists, musicians, dancers and theatre persons worked individually and as a community.
1964-69
Diploma in Fine Arts, Sir Jamshedjee Jeebhoy School of Art, Bombay
1970-72
French Government Scholarship for Fine Arts to study in Paris
1984-89
Art Fellowship, Government of India
Lives in Bombay, India
2003
Civitella Rainieri
1999/2000
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka
1999
Lasalle-SIA, Singapore
1989
USIA Fellowship at Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown
1988
Kasauli Art Centre, Kausali
2007
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2006
Living in Alicetime, Sakshi Gallery, Bombay and Rabindra Bhavan New Delhi, India
2005-06
Exposing the Source: The Paintings of Nalini Malani, A retrospective exihibition Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Ma, U.S.A.
2004
Stories Retold, Bose Pacia, New York
2002/3
Hamletmachine, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
2002
Nalini Malani, Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi
2000
The Sacred & The Profane, Sakshi Gallery, Bombay
1999
Remembering Toba Tek Singh, Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay
1997
The Job / 1996 Medea, Max Mueller Bhavan, Bombay
1992
City of Desires, Gallery Chemould, Bombay 2008
Sidney Biennal, curated by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev
2007
Venice Biennal, Italian Pavillon, curated by Robert Storr, Venice, Italy
Urban Manners, Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy
2006
Local Stories, Modern Art Oxford, U.K.
2005
TI The Pantagruel Syndrome, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, curated by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev and Francesco Bonami, Turin, Italy
51 st Venice Biennale, Italy
Recent paintings at the Armory Show, New York, U.S.A.
7th Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah, U.A.E.
Crossovers & Rewriters: Borders over Asia, Museum of Contemporary Art<, World Social Forum
2004
media_city seoul 2004, International Media Art Biennale, Seoul
Museum of Art, Seoul
Crossing Currents-video art and cultural identity, Lalit Kala Akademy Galleries, New Delhi
La Nuit Blanche, Paris
Minority Report, Aarhus Art Festival, Aarhus
Edge of Desire, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth/ 2005, The Asia Society, New York
In Transit II, presented by Sakshi Gallery at Temporary Gallery, Sophienstr.,Berlin
Zoom, Museu Temporario, Lisbon
2003
Poetic Justice, Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul
Body.City, House of World Culture, Berlin
Kalaghoda City Festival, Bombay
Multi Media Art Asia Pacific, Millenium Monument, Beijing
00,98 World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam
2002 1996 Asia – Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art
Gallery, Brisbane
2001
Unpacking Europe, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Century City, Tate Modern, London
2000
Text & Sub-Text, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore
1987 Havanna Biennial, Havanna
Kwangju Biennial, Kwangju
Hamletmachine, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka
1999
Voiceovers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
The Sacred and the Profane, Theater der Welt, Berlin
1998
Private Mythologies, Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Tokyo
1997-98
Out of India, Queens Art Museum
1997
Fifty Years of Contemporary Indian Art, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
Self & the World, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi ,95,93,Sahmat exhibitions, traveling in India 91, 89
1996
Traditions/Tensions, The Asia Society, New York / 1998 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Containers ’96 Art across the Oceans, Copenhagen
1995
1st Africus Biennial, Johannesburg
1987,88,89
Through the Looking Glass, traveling in India
1982
Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy of Art, London
Myth and Reality, Museum of Modern art, Oxford
2003
Unity in Diversity, installation, living room setting with flat screen in golden frame on a crimson wall, two lamps and a framed photograph, sound, 7 min.
Game Pieces, installation, shadow/video play of four connecting
wall projections and six rotating reverse painted mylar cylinders, sound,
20 min.
2002
Transgressions, installation, shadow/video play of three connecting
wall projections and four rotating reverse painted mylar cylinders, sound,
7 min.
2000
'Hamletmachine, installation, three wall projections
and one floor projection on a bed of salt surrounded with mirror reflecting
material, 20 min.
1999
Stains, single channel animation, 10 min.
1998
Remembering Toba Tek Singh, installation, four projections on three
walls with twelve monitors in twelve tin trunks surrounded with mirror
reflecting material, sound, 20 min.
1997
The Job, theatre play, video projection as part of the setting
1996
Memory; Record/Erase, single channel animation, sound, 10 min.
1994
Medea material, single channel recording of theatre play, 56 min.
1993
Medea material, theatre play with video conference mode
1992
City of Desires, single channel documentary of a site specific installation,
30 min.
1996-97
A project with Dr. Anuradha Kapur, theatre director. Performance/installation,
based on Bertolt Brecht’s short story, "THE JOB OR BY THE SWEAT
OF THY BROW THOU SHALT FAIL TO EARN THY BREAD", Sponsors and producers,
Max Mueller Bhavan Bombay, National Centre of Performing Arts, Gallery
Chemould & Sakshi Gallery. 6 shows in Bombay, one show in New Delhi.
1993-94
A project with Alaknanda Samarth, theatre actress and director,
performance/installation based on Heiner Mueller’s "MEDEAMATERIAL" A
Max Mueller Bhavan production, in Bombay.
National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
British Museum, London
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka
Kawaguchi Museum, Saitama
Peabody Museum, Wooster
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana
2004
Pijnappel, Johan, Indian Video Art: History in Motion, Fukuoka
Sigwart, Ann, n.paradoxa, vol. 13, London
2003
McEvilly, Thomas, Nalini Malani at the New Museum - New York, Art
in America, November
Kapur, Geeta, Body.City, House of World Culture, Berlin
Hoffie, Pat Witnessing to Silence: Art and Human Rights. ANU Humanities
Reasearh Centre and Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra.Rajadhyaksha, Ashish,
Spilling Out: Nalini’s recent Video’s
Installations, Third Text Nr 62 Vol17 Issue 1
2002
Pijnappel, Johan, Video Art in India, Apeejay Media Gallery, New
Delhi
Barragan Paco, El arte que viene, (The art to come), Subastas Siglo
XXI, Madrid
Raffel, Suhanya, Asia – Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery,
Brisbane
2001
Pijnappel, Johan, Unpacking Europe, Towards a Critical Reading, Museum Boijmans
Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Chadwick Whitney, Women, Art and Society, Thames & Hudson, London
Pijnappel, Johan, Nalini Malani-a Doomsday Oracle, Art & Asia Pacific Magazine,
issue 30, Sydney
Lynn, Victoria. Reinventing Textiles: Gender and Identity, vol.2. Telos, Winchester
Pijnappel, Johan, Gallerie, Vol. 7, Bombay
2000
Sambrani, Chaitanya, Text & Sub-Text, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore
Kapur, Geeta, When was Modernism, Tulika Press, New Delhi
Tani, Arata, Kwangju Biennial, Kwangju
Kidd, Courteny. Voiceovers. Art AsiaPacific Quarterly, no.27
Hamletmachine, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka
1999
Robinson, Joel David. Another Landscape: Kawaguchi Museum of Contemporary Art,
Saitama, Japan. Parachute, no.93, January–March, Tokyo
Pijnappel. Johan, Beam, Bombay English Association Magazine,
1998
Pijnappel, Johan, World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam
Biography
Education
Residencies
Solo Exhibitions:
Group Exhibitions (selected):
Videography
Installation/Performance Collaborations
Selected Public Collections
Bibliography
