Kanchan Chander

Kanchan Chander pursued her Bachelors in Painting and Printmaking from the College of Art, Delhi in 1981. During her bachelors program, she went on to undertake additional training in printmaking from the College of Art Santiago, Chile as a guest student between 1979 and 1980. She has been a recipient of numerous scholarships, fellowships and grants like the Lalit Kala Akademi Research Grant (1982-83); French Government Scholarship, Printmaking, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, France (1984-85); Printmaking and Painting fellowship, Ministry of Human Resources Development, New Delhi (1990-92). She’s taught extensively at various colleges and had multiple solo shows nationally and internationally. Some of her participations include ‘The Print: Matter in Matrix’, Gallery Latitude 28 at Sridharani Gallery, New Delhi (2020); ‘Stree Vision’, 51 Women Indian Printmakers, Gallery Betonowy, Eugeniusza Gepperta Academia of Art and Design, Warsaw, Poland in collaboration with Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2019); ‘Body’, curated by Johny ML, Shanghumugham Musuem, Thiruvaranthampuram, Kerela (2019); ‘Songs of the Uncaged Bird’, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (2018); 1st Print Biennale India, Lalit Kala Akademi at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (2018); ‘Whispering Torsos’, solo show, curated by Kiran Mohan, Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi (2017); ‘In Transition’, solo show, Berlin Fest, Germany (2012); ‘Migrating Memories’, curated by Hema Singh, Alliance Francaise, New Delhi (2009); ‘Tiger by the Tail! -Women Artist of Indian Transforming Culture’, curated by Roobina Karode and Elinor Gadon, Brandeis University, USA (2007). Kanchan Chander’s works are autobiographical. She was inspired by Frida Kahlo, Amrita Sher-Gil and figures from classical Indian temple sculptures. The torsos and figures are the focus of her works. They represent fertility, motherhood, sensuousness and sensitivity. She has been working in different mediums – painting in oil or acrylic and printmaking. Gradually she started indulging in mixed mediums with a strong belief in not restricting herself to a single medium. Etchings and aquatints have been her preferred medium for past four decades. The process of drawing and etching the lines and tones give her an immense satisfaction. Further, she always look towards the surprise element that the final print withholds. Kanchan’s personal lifescape, dilemmas, conflicts, joys and aches screened through subjective distortions inject substance into her art. The artist lives and works in New Delhi.