Parvathi Nayar
Biography
Parvathi Nayar
(born in 1964, New Delhi, India)
Chennai-based visual artist Parvathi Nayar plays an active role and is deeply committed to supporting the emerging renaissance of the contemporary art in Chennai. She left Madras to obtain her master's degree at the Saint Martins, in London, then came back to live and work in the subcontinent.
Parvathi is best known for her videos and her complex drawing practices; she also engages with sculpture, painting and photography. Her black-and-white graphite drawings are multifaceted works that look at the internal/intimate spaces within our bodies, and the external/public spaces in which we live, often through the prism of science and technology.
She is a pioneere in the form of “drawn sculpture” i.e. three-dimensional sculptural forms that are covered with drawings as in the seminal 20-foot high drawing “A Story of Flight”, that is part of the now world-famous Jai He art programme at the new T2 Terminal, Mumbai international airport. She was a part of the Indian artists, invited to exhibit their works at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014/15. Her work was presented in Singapore and is presented in numorous institutions such as the Singapore Art Museum, BMW, HCL, The Sotheby's Art Institute.
Exhibited in the Salle des lavabos of the Ecole des filles, her drawings, as complex as fluid, develop on a surprising three-dimensionality. Pioneer in what she calls the “drawing sculpture”, she questions the scien- tific and technological link to the world in a great movement of grey and white.
Exhibitions selected
Solo Exhibitions
2014 - The Ambiguity of Landscapes, Gallery Veda, Chennai
2008 - I Sing the Body Electric, Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai
2007 - Win Lose Draw, commissioned by ARTSingapore, Singapore
2006 - Innerscapes, Song of India, Singapore
2006 - Drawing is a verb , The Arts House Singapore
1998 - Journey, Kinara, Jakarta
1997 - Flowers, Faces, Feelings, Jakarta
1996 - The art of a woman, the Koi Gallery, Jakarta
1994 - Woman and the Elements, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore
Groupe exhibitions
2016 - L'attrape-Feu, l'art réanchante le monde, Ecole des filles, Huelgoat, France
2016 - Wayfarers, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, India Art Fair , New Delhi
2015 - False Alternatives, Chennai
2015 - Devotion, Gallery Art Positive, New Delhi
2013 - Wonderland, Park Hyatt and Gallery Veda, Chennai
2012 - Skin Deep, Religare Arts Initiative, New Delhi
2012 - Small is Big, Durbar Hall, Kochi
2011 - What Happens in Mukteshwar, New Delhi
2011 - Women Artists in Singapore, The Singapore Art Museum
2010 - Water & Movement, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2010 - Evolution of the Species, Institute of Contemporary Indian Art Mumbai
2009 - Gender Genetics Genesis, Gallery Espace, Delhi
2008 - Af-fair, 1x1 Art Gallery, Dubai
2008 - Drawing Out Conversations, Singapore Biennale, Singapore
2007 - Tiger Translate, Beijing
2006 - Nature Born, Langgeng Contemporary Art Festival, Indonesia
2006 - Adventures of little things, NAFA Gallery Singapore
2005 - Feminine Fables, Indigo Blue Art, Singapore
2004 - Small is Beautiful, Familiofiumano gallery, London
2003 - Zodiac : A Confluence of East and West, Art Seasons Gallery, Singapore
2002 - Time Cycles, Alliance Français, Singapore
2000 - A Passage Through India, Galerie Dauphin, Singapore
1999 - Indian Art Through The Ages, The Caldwell House Gallery, Singapore
1994 - Confluence, Boat Quay, Singapore
1991 - Figurama, organised by Group 90, Singapore
