KAVITA SHAH - Artist - Art Educator
I am a visual artist with a master’s degree in printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (1985).
My next project is research on festival prints held in Paris called Le Mois de L’Estemps in the month of May 2020.
After graduation, I taught art in schools for a couple of years and was offered a fellowship by the Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad, from 1988 to 1990. In my two years there, I focused on lithography and linocut. Towards the end of my tenure, I also had the opportunity to participate in a papermaking workshop with Prof. Jan Baker from USA.
I have enjoyed working in Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1995-97), a vibrant multidisciplinary art center with an exhaustive library on literature and music, well-established ceramic and print-making studios, museums of tribal and contemporary art, and a great theatre repertoire. I had the most wonderful time working in various disciplines, from ceramics to theatre design to art direction for films, during my stay there.
In 1997, on the occasion of the 50th Year of Indian Independence, the French government invited five Indian printmakers to work in an atelier in Paris for 2 weeks. My name was among the chosen five. It was a very well-organized program supported by Novotel Hotels and L'Association Française d'Action Artistique (AFAA). My print studio of choice was Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut, and our work produced during the program was displayed in their National Assembly and in Le Mois de l'Estampe.
In 1998, I worked with Robert Blackburn in his Print Making Workshop in New York. Inspired by Bob, on my return to India, with my artist friends, I started a cooperative print making studio named Chhaap. The purpose was to create a facility for us, and for other young artists, to print. To fulfill our objective of popularizing print as an art form, and to promote other contemporary art, we created many print portfolios by contemporary artists, conducted workshops, and started Artist–in-Residence programs.
My focus shifted from the narrative-figurative style, which was very prominent in Fine Arts colleges in the early ‘80s, to non-figurative explorations. Travelling to Paris and New York gave me the opportunity to see contemporary art and new trends. The international exposure also provided inspiration to rethink, restructure, and relocate myself in the larger picture.
In 2006, ‘Footprints - Women in printmaking’ was my first large project of curating a show. Supported by Hivos, the show comprised three generations of women printmakers from India, Hongkong, Pakistan, UK, and the US. In a well-designed catalogue, the participants shared their views about the challenges and advantages of being a woman printmaker. It was planned as a travelling show that went from Vadodara to Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Bangalore, and a part of it was also presented at the Southern Graphic Council symposium in Kansas City, USA.
Impact 5 international was held in 2007 in Tallin, Estonia, where I presented a talk on the history of contemporary printmaking of India. The five-day symposium was packed with workshops, talks, exhibitions, and networking. It was a beautifully enriching experience for me. Soon after returning from Estonia, I floated an exchange portfolio project on the theme of Ganjifa (Persian name for the game of deck of cards). One card each was created by 54 printmakers from more than 14 countries. Each artist received a set of 54 prints and exhibited in their own countries. I had mounted the show that travelled to many cities in India and to Bristol in the Impact 7 conference in 2009.
Following the success of Ganjifa, many other exchange portfolios followed on the theme of different board games, like Snakes and Ladders and Chess. I curated a segment of the first Print Biennial of China Art Academy in Hangzhou in 2015. The same year, I also attended the board meeting of Res Artis in Slovakia with 9 other members from different countries.
From 2005 to 2015, I served as Associate Professor in an architecture college, teaching basic design and electives of art. Along with my work, I was interested in academics and art management. I felt teaching was the best way to learn. Working with young students gives a different kind of energy and a fresh outlook.
I received the Art Think South Asia fellowship, designed for art managers. Organized by Khoj, Goethe Institute and British Council, this began with residential training in Delhi by international coaches on finance, strategy, digital media, and management. It concluded with a secondment in Berlin. An extremely well-designed course, this gave me lot of insights and skills to organize programs at Chhaap Foundation.
During 2016-17, I did a project with Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, as a consultant to refurbish their printmaking studio, presses, tools, etc., as well as studio structure and planning of workshops and other activities. I curated two shows in their PRINT exhibition and participated in the symposium panel on Curator, Collector, and Collectives.
2019 was an exciting year for me, as I went to Otterbein University, Ohio, USA as an artist in residence and held a solo show in the Miller Gallery. I also gave a talk on my work at the Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative, School of Visual Arts, Boston University, and School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa.
My next project is research on festival prints held in Paris called Le Mois de L’Estemps in the month of May 2020.