biography
 
 
 
       
  Malani's work is influenced by her experiences as a refugee of the Partition of India. She places inherited iconographies and cherished cultural stereotypes under pressure. Her point of view is unwaveringly urban and internationalist, and unsparing in its condemnation of a cynical nationalism that exploits the beliefs of the masses. Hers is an art of excess, going beyond the boundaries of legitimized narrative, exceeding the conventional and initiating dialogue.
Characteristics of her work have been the gradual movement towards new media, international collaboration and expanding dimensions of the pictorial surface into the surrounding space as ephemeral wall drawing, installation, shadow play, multi projection works and theatre.		  
       
     
   Education
     
  1964-69 Diploma in Fine Arts, Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art, Bombay
  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.
  1970-72 French Government Scholarship for Fine Arts to study in Paris
  1984-89 Art Fellowship, Government of India
     
   
   
  Residencies
     
  2005 Lucas Art Residencies , Montalvo Ca., USA
  2003 Civitella Rainieri, Umbertide, Italy
  1999/2000 Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
  1999 Lasalle-SIA, Singapore
  1989 USIA Fellowship at Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, U.S.A.
  1988 Kasauli Art Centre, Kausali, India
   
   
  Selected Individual Exhibitions
     
  2009 Cassandra, Galerie Lelong, Paris
  2008 Listening to the Shades, Arario Gallery, New York
  2007 Nalini Malani, Walsh Gallery, Chicago
  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 exhibition Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Ma, U.S.A. .
  2004 Stories Retold, Bose Pacia, New York, U.S.A. read essay by Chaitanya Sambrani
  2002/3 Hamletmachine, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, U.S.A.
  2002 Nalini Malani, Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi, India
  2000 The Sacred & The Profane, Sakshi Gallery, Bombay, India
  1999 Remembering Toba Tek Singh, Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, India
  1997 The Job / 1996 Medea, Max Mueller Bhavan, Bombay
  1992 City of Desires, Gallery Chemould, Bombay
 
   

  Selected Group Exhibitions
     
  2009 MATER, Universidad de Jaén, Spain
  2009 National Galleries of Modern Art, New Delhi/Bangalore/Bombay
  2008/09 The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul
  2008/09 Prospect 1, CAC, New Orleans
  2008 India Moderna, IVAM, Valencia
  2008 Indian Highway, Serpentine Gallery, London
  2008 Revolutions- Forms that Turn, Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island, Sydney
  2008 Video Shortlist, Vocatif, Passage de Retz, Paris
  2008 Excavations: Memory/Myth/Membrane, Art Musings Gallery, Bombay
  2007 Frame, Grid, Cell, BodhiArt, Bombay
  2007 Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind – Art in the Present Tense, Italian Pavilion, Giardini, 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice
  2007 Urban Manners, Hangar Biocca, Milan
  2007 New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India, Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago
  2006 Cinema of Prayoga, Tate Modern, London
  2006 Local Stories, Modern Art, Oxford, U.K.
  2005 T1 – The Pantagruel Syndrome, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin , Italy
  2005 51st Venice Biennale 2005 read interview by Johan Pijnappel
  2005 Recent paintings at the Armory Show, New York
  2005 7th Sharjah Biennale, U.A.E.
  2005 Crossovers & Rewrites: Borders over Asia, Museum of Contemporary Art,
World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil
  2004 media_city Seoul , International Media Art Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
  2004 Crossing Currents-video art and cultural identity, Lalit Kala Akademy Galleries, New Delhi, India
 

2004

 La Nuit Blanche, Paris, France
  2004 Minority Report, Aarhus Art Festival, Aarhus, Denmark
  2004 Edge of Desire, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
  2004 Edge of Desire, The Asia Society, New York, U.S.A.
  2004 Zoom, Museu Temporario, Lisbon
  2003 Poetic Justice, Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
2003 Body.City, House of World Culture, Berlin, Germany
2003 Kalaghoda City Festival, Bombay, India
2003 Multi Media Art Asia Pacific, Millenium Monument, Beijing, China

1998,
2000,
2003

World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2002,
1996		 Asia – Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2001 Unpacking Europe, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2001 Century City, Tate Modern, London, U.K.
2000 Text & Sub-Text, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore
2000,
1987 		Havanna Biennial, Havanna, Cuba
2000 Gwangju Biennial, Guwangju, South Korea
  2000 Hamletmachine, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
1999 Voiceovers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
1999 The Sacred and the Profane, Theater der Welt, Berlin, Gremany
1998 Private Mythologies, Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Tokyo, Japan
1997-98 Out of India, Queens Art Museum, New York, U.S.A
1997 Fifty Years of Contemporary Indian Art, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India
1997 Self & the World, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi , India
1997,
95,93,
91, 89 		Sahmat exhibitions, travelling show in India
1996 Traditions/Tensions, The Asia Society, New York / 1998 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
1996 Containers ’96 Art across the Oceans, Copenhagen, Denmark
1995 1st Africus Biennial, Johannesburg, South Africa
1987,
88,89		 Through the Looking Glass, travelling show in India
1982 Contemporary Indian Art, Royal Academy of Art, London, U.K.
1982 Myth and Reality, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, U.K 
   
   
  Videography
     
  2007 Remembering Mad Meg, video shadow play, two single channel animations, a series of lights and 8 rotating reverse painted Lexan cylinders, sound, 3 min.
  2005 Mother India-Transactions in the Construction of Pain, five channel video play, sound, 5 min.
  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.
  2003 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, 8 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 Medeamaterial, single channel recording of theatre play, 56 min.
  1993 Medeamaterial, theatre play with video conference mode
  1992 City of Desires, single channel documentary of a site specific installation, 30 min.
 
   
  Installation/Performance Collaborations
       
  1987   Mural at ‘Shah House’ with Bhupen Khakkar and Vivan Sundaram
  1998   Global Liquidity & 23 images of the Avon Lady
Artists’ books with Australian artist Fiona Hall
  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.
   
   
  Selected Bibliography
     
  2009 Doris von Drathen, Galerie Lelong, Paris.
  2009 Christopher Hart Chambers, Nalini Malani, Flash Art January.
  2008 Robert Storr, Listening to the Shades, Charta, Milan.
  2008 Roberta Smith, New York Times, 24 October.
  2007 Aidan Dunne, Looking at India from the Outside, The Irish Times, 31 August.
  2007 Thomas McEvilley and Chaitanya Sambrani, Nalini Malani, IMMA/Charta, Dublin.
  2007 Robert Storr, Nalini Malani, 52nd Venice Biennial.
  2005 Pijnappel, Johan, Nalini Malani Interview, iCon India Contemporary. 51 Venice Biennale Bose Pacia
Contemporary Art of India series Vol. 25.
  2004 Devenport, Rhana, Phantasmagoria and the Lanternist, The video/shadow plays of Nalini Malani.
Bose Pacia Contempoaray Art of India series vol.20.
  2004 Sambrani, Chaitanya, Apocalypse recalled,
The Historical Discourse of Nalini Malani.
Bose Pacia Contemporaray Art of India series vol.20.
  2004 Pijnappel, Johan, Indian Video Art: History in Motion, Fukuoka
 

2004

Sigwart, Ann, n.paradoxa, vol. 13, London
  2003 McEvilly, Thomas, Nalini Malani at the New Museum - New York, Art in America, November
  2003 Kapur, Geeta, Body.City, House of World Culture, Berlin
  2003 Hoffie, Pat Witnessing to Silence: Art and Human Rights. ANU Humanities Research Centre and Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra.
    Subramaniam, Radhika. Nalini Malani: Introduction , Artists Pages Remembering Toba Tek Singh. The Wall 2002 , CONNECT 4 .An Arts International Inc. New York
Publication.
  2002 Pijnappel, Johan, Video Art in India, Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi
  2003 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish, Spilling Out: Nalini’s recent Video’s Installations, Third Text Nr 62 Vol17 Issue 1 read essay by Ashish Rajadhyaksha
  2003,
2000,
1998		 Pijnappel, Johan, World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam
  2002 Barragan Paco, El arte que viene, (The art to come), Subastas Siglo XXI, Madrid
  2002 Raffel, Suhanya, Asia – Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
  2001 Pijnappel, Johan, Unpacking Europe, Towards a Critical Reading, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
  2001 Chadwick Whitney, Women, Art and Society, Thames & Hudson, London
  2001 Pijnappel, Johan, Nalini Malani-a Doomsday Oracle, Art & Asia Pacific Magazine, issue 30, Sydney
  2001 Lynn, Victoria. Reinventing Textiles: Gender and Identity, vol.2. Telos, Winchester
  2000 Sambrani, Chaitanya, Text & Sub-Text, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore
  2000 Kapur, Geeta, When was Modernism, Tulika Press, New Delhi
  2000 Tani, Arata, Kwangju Biennial, Kwangju
  2000 Kidd, Courteny. Voiceovers. Art AsiaPacific Quarterly, no.27
  2000 Hamletmachine, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka
  2001 Pijnappel, Johan, Gallerie, Vol. 7, Bombay
  1999 Robinson, Joel David. Another Landscape: Kawaguchi Museum of Contemporary Art, Saitama, Japan. Parachute, no.93, January–March, Tokyo
  1999 Pijnappel. Johan, Beam, Bombay English Association Magazine, Vol. 18,January, Bombay
  1999 Lynn, Victoria, Voiceovers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
  1999 McEvilley, Thomas. ‘Picturing India’. Art in America, vol.87, no.11, November, New York
  1999 Sambrani, Chaitanya, catalogue essay, Another Landscape, Lunami Gallery, Tokyo.
  1998 Tatehara, Akira Private Mythologies, Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Tokyo
  1997 Kapoor, Kamala, Medeaprojekt, Max Mueller Bhavan, Bombay
  1996 Poshyananda, Apinian, Traditions/Tensions, The Asia Society, New York / 1998 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
  1996 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish, Second Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane
  1996 Kapoor, Kamala, Free Trade, Containers ‘96, Art Across The Oceans, Copenhagen
  1996 Kapoor, Kamala, Expressions & Evocations, Contemporary Women Artists of India. Marg, vol.48, no.2.
  1995 Kapur, Geeta 1st Africus Biennial, Johannesburg
  1995 Kapur, Geeta, Body as Gesture, India International Centre, New Delhi
  1995 Kapoor Kamala, Missives from the Streets, Art & Asia Pacific Quarterly, Sydney vol. 2, no. 1, January
  1993 Kapur, Geeta, A Critical Difference, 1993
  1991 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish, The City of Desires, Gallery Chemould, Bombay
  1990 Gokhale, Shanta, Under the Skin, Gallery 7, Bombay
  1987 Rajadhyaksha, Ashish, Through the Looking Glass, Roopankar Museum of Contemporary Art, Bhopal
  1982 Elliot, David and Alkazi, Ibrahim, Myth and Reality, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
  1980 Kapur, Geeta, His Life, Art Heritage, New Delhi
   
   
  Films on the Artist  
     
  1990 Khopkar, Arun, " Figures Of Thought" Bhupen Khakhar, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani.
  1990 Mahler-Wein, Lutz, Film Series "One World Art"
  2001 Lall Ein “The Broken Spine” A Documentary Film On The Artist.
    Bedi, Nandini On Going Project On The Artist "A Biography”
Guest Advisor At The Rijksakademie, Amsterdam
   
   
  Selected Public Collections
   
  Museum of Modern Art, New York
Asia Society Museum, New York
The Burger Collection, Hong Kong
Hauser and Wirth, London
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
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Wilfredo Lam Center, Havana
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Ma. USA
   
   
 
 

Nalini Malani lives and works in Bombay

 

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