I Am Here | Nicola Durvasula

I Am Here, a solo exhibition of work by Nicola Durvasula. Almost a mini retrospective, I Am Here presents a range of material including witty polemical and conceptual works on paper, intricate and highly accomplished figure drawings, and a range of small sculptures, which reveal the artist’s often absurd sensibility and poetic imagination. Importantly, the decades covered by the exhibition coincide with a period during which Durvasula has had a strong association with India. This is evident in her practice through references to the subcontinent (including stylistic elements taken from Indian art traditions) as well as the biographical details that appear in a text by the exhibition’s curator, which accompanies the show.

Born 1960 in Jersey, British Isles, Nicola Durvasula attained a Diplome National Superieurd ’Expression Plastique from the Ecole des Beaux Arts du Havre, France, and an M.A. in Fine Art from the Kent Institute of Art and Design. Solo exhibitions include Blame it on the sun (2011), Rachmaninoff’s, London; Life is but a dream, part vii (2008), Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai; Static lines and where they take you (2007), Thomas Erben Gallery, New York; Nicola Durvasula (2004), Nature Morte, New Delhi and D. Nicola (2000), Gallery Chemould, Mumbai. In 2011, her work was featured in Watercolour at Tate Britain, London. Other recent participations include Homespun (2011), Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi; Les Printemps des Poetes (2010), Salon de Lecture, Musee de Quai Branly, Paris; Progressive to Altermodern (2009), Grosvenor Gallery, London; Three Points of View (2008), GalerieMirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai; and Nicola Durvasula, Chitra Ganesh, Tejal Shah (2006), ThomasErben Gallery, New York. From February 14 to June 9, 2013 her work will be shown in the exhibition The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989 at the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago. She lives and works in Walmer, Kent.