NALINI MALANI (B. 1946)

Nalini Malani emerged at a time when the Indian art scene was male dominated. Amongst a new generation of women artists who wove personal narratives and histories into their practice, her early works were cathartic autobiographies. Always attuned to global discourses which shape female identity Malani uses a singularly personal idiom that reflects on local history and social issues to communicate her position. Her works are populated with appropriated and reappropriated imagery, which furthers her narrative.

Malani's practice encompasses drawing, performance, installation and video, and includes collaboration with other artists. Her works have been exhibited at a number of important museums and biennales. In the last decade she has had six solo museum exhibitions including a major retrospective in 2010 at the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin in 2008 and in 2003 at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. Her work was recently included in Documenta 13, Kassel in 2012 and group shows at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011), Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2009), Serpentine Gallery, London (2009), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2008), 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008), 52nd Biennale di Venezia (2007) and Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2005).