Seema Kohli

The teller of stories, Seema Kohli, born in 1960 is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist working for over 35 years. She is holding a philosophy degree with honours from Miranda House and a diploma in applied arts from South Delhi Polytechnic for women. Using a wide range of a working media of painting, printmaking, sculptures, murals, installations and performing art, she narrates tales through bringing in her sensibilities in her art. The artist engages with philosophical inquiry of life to grasp the metaphysical truth of existence and the cosmic energy that is responsible for all the creation, in turn reflecting through the motifs and subjects poured through the paintings. Her works speaks to us of knowledge, of the world beneath us, of the world we are living in as well as of the heavens or the unknowns, cyclicality of existence and also of the lost feminine narrative in cultural history through a noted series of The Golden Womb. Myths, fables, imagined as well as real, her canvases live with layered stories rooted in philosophy and gained knowledge, Indian in essence but universal in context. Sharp linework at every corner of the space, varied elements compiled with each other like thoughts splurging, giving the viewer a moment of catharsis just as the artist well may have. Raw drawings of motifs like the female body, tree of life, elements and patterns derived from nature, usage of bold and broad, sharp and delicate lines, she has as much to tell as it is to grasp, well defined and there. An inner dialogue in the compositions of the forms, the artist takes liberty in the spacing and the positioning of the elements away from reality depicting a separate world, a relevant one. While colours may heighten the intensity, they are not an integral part of the practice, drawings being independent of it, the artist seemingly writing through them. Kohli, living a legacy of art right from the independence, has had over 30 solo shows in Venice, Brussels, London, New York, Dubai, Singapore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and many more as well as international biennales and art fairs. Her works are in collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore, Melinda Bill Gates Foundation, Rubin's Museum, MOSA-Brussels and Kochi Museum of Arts. The artist lives and works in New Delhi. You can browse through our gallery of Serigraphs to see more of her artworks and paintings along with other famous serigraph artists.