Monali Meher

Monali Meher is a multidisciplinary artist from India whose practice spans performance, installation, and site-specific interventions. Her work explores themes of time, memory, and transformation, often delving into ideas of repair, continuity, and cycles of change, both personal and collective. Meher studied at the Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai, and over the course of her career, has developed a distinct visual and performative language rooted in gesture, materiality, and temporality. Using organic and found materials such as fabric, glass, soil, and everyday objects, her works explore the fragility of human experience and the continuous process of becoming. Her work continues to engage ideas of transformation, endurance, and renewal through the body and material process.

Over several decades, Meher has performed and exhibited at major international venues, Tate Modern (London), Sinop Biennale (Turkey), Rijksmuseum Twenthe (Netherlands), MAXXI Museum (Rome), Guangzhou Live (China), and the Prague Biennale (Czech Republic). Her works have also been featured at renowned institutions, including the Cobra Museum (Amstelveen), Museum Arnhem, and Stedelijk Kunstakademie. She has participated in landmark global events, the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale, the Dakar Biennale, and the Kathmandu Triennale. In 2021, Meher performed at Arctic Action VI in Spitsbergen and participated in the ‘Upcycling’ Sinop Biennale 8, reflecting her continued engagement with ecological and cultural concerns.

Her solo and group presentations include: ‘Unknown Landscapes’, Garage Rotterdam, Netherlands (2025); ‘Rumi, Say That I Am You’, St. Jacob’s Church, Ghent, Belgium (2025); ‘Stone Soup (Protest Recipes)’, Ledebergplein, Ghent, Belgium (2025); and ‘De Poorten – op ’t randje van de stad’, Museum STAM, Ghent, Belgium (2025). One of her most significant public installations, The Bridge Is Open (2011), under the Willem’s Bridge in Amsterdam, remains on view until 2025. Throughout her career, Meher has received numerous accolades, including the Golden Chimera Award at the ICASTICA Biennial (Arezzo, Italy, 2013), LIVE Funds from BKVB Amsterdam (2009), and the NN Art Award at Art Rotterdam (2023). Her practice has been supported by AFK and Fonds BKVB, and she has undertaken residencies at UNESCO-Aschberg (Vienna), the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam), Casa Masaccio (Italy), and KHOJ (New Delhi).

Monali Meher lives and works in Ghent, Belgium.