Vanita Gupta

Vanita Gupta’s practise deals with the minimal, most relevant and perennially compelling forms. She confounds us by enlarging the definition of art, conflating genres and pictorial language.

She began as a painter, concerned with coordination of movement and balance, juxtaposing existence and non-existence, empty vacuums and solid spaces. If one were to focus on the look of Vanita Gupta’s oeuvre, it would encompass characteristics of sculpture, installation and drawings, interspersed with quotidian and provocative videos that loop in melancholic shifts – testing the plasticity and strength of natural materials – metal, wood or rubber.

Vanita was awarded J D 3rd Rockefeller Fellowship Grant, 2014-15 by the Asian Cultural Council, New York, to observe the contemporary art practice in New York, visit museums and galleries and meet curators. She was invited for a residency at ‘Residency Unlimited’ New York, 2015. Vanita’s video work, the “Balloon Trilogy: Liberation”, was featured at the 16th International Media Art WRO Biennale 2015, Wroclaw, Poland. In 2014, she was awarded the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, New York. The same year she was at an artist residency in Vermont Studio Centre, USA. In 2012 her video works were selected by Videoholica International Video Art Festival, Varna, Bulgaria. Vanita was also a recipient of the Raza Award 2008, India for excellence in art.

Vanita’s drawings on large scale canvas were presented in a solo show at Red Church Street Gallery-London (2008) by Pundole art Gallery and Rob Dean Art. In 2006 Gallery Threshold represented her in solo show at Singapore Art Fair’, Vanita’s work transitioned towards sculpture through explorations with balloon and metal, which were exhibited in solo show at Pundole art gallery, Mumbai (2013), Art heritage gallery, Delhi (2015). Her experiments with silicone rubber presented as an architectural scenography of 250 sculptural pieces that was chosen as a special project at India Art Fair, Delhi 2017, Presented by Art Heritage Gallery. Her experience in New York translated into a light+glass sculpture, “Window without a wall, presented in Delhi by Art Heritage Gallery. In 2019 her intervention with architecture which lead to a collaborative work with Architect Naveen Mahantesh which was presented as ‘An act in three scenes’ by Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai. In 2020 her sculpture/video-work/performance was at Waterman’s Gallery, London.

Vanita lives and works between Mumbai and Bangalore.