Jhaveri Contemporary

About the Gallery
Jhaveri Contemporary was formed in 2010 by sisters Amrita and Priya with an eye towards representing artists, across generations and nationalities, whose work is informed by South Asian connections and traditions. The gallery’s dedication to original scholarship, engendered through its carefully crafted shows, is one of the many ways it distinguishes itself. Entwined with this philosophy is another guiding principle: showcasing the heterogeneous practices of long-celebrated luminaries as well as emerging talents, often in generously interrogative conversations. With a focus on mining lesser-known art histories, Jhaveri Contemporary facilitates dialogue between artists, curators and historians to add to the wider field of art. Estates served by the gallery include Mrinalini Mukherjee and Anwar Jalal Shemza.

Amrita and Priya have produced landmark projects such as Anish Kapoor’s first-ever public exhibition in India in 2010. The sisters are published authors and, in 2005, they collaborated on the seminal guidebook, 101: A Guide to 101 Modern and Contemporary Indian Artists. Jhaveri Contemporary’s gallery space in Mumbai is on the third floor of a heritage building which overlooks the iconic Gateway of India from its balconies.

About the Presentation
Jhaveri Contemporary will present work by Balraj Khanna in a solo presentation at Independent 20th Century.

In the wake of the Second World War and the era of decolonisation, many young artists from across the empire came to study and work in London. Among them was Balraj Khanna, who arrived from India with the dream of studying English Literature but became well known for his colourful kaleidoscopic, primarily abstract paintings which have often been compared to those of Klee and Miro but are uniquely his own.

Entirely self taught, Khanna became integral to the 1960s international abstract movement, making large immersive paintings in which carefully conceived shapes both natural and man made - birds and bunting, fish and flags, figures and toys - seem to float in vast expanses of colour.