Madhvi Parekh

Born in 1942, Sanjaya near Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Madhvi Parekh prides herself on being a self-trained artist. After her maiden exhibition at the Birla Academy in Kolkata in 1968, she has not looked back and gone on to show in exhibitions held across India and abroad, including London, Amsterdam, New York, Australia, and Kuwait.

Madhvi Parekh started painting, encouraged by her husband, Manu Parekh, who gifted her 'Pedagogical Sketchbook', a book by Paul Klee on drawing exercises. She uses numerous folk motifs, myths, and legends, often using a figurative and abstract style emphasizing the repetition of geometric shapes such as lines, circles, and triangles.

Her recent significant exhibitions include ‘Cosmic Garden’, a collaborative exhibition with Chanakya School of Craft at the Venice Biennale, Italy (2024), ‘Agradoot, Agents of Change’ at Art Alive Gallery (2023), ‘Madhvi Parekh: The Curious Seeker’ at DAG, Mumbai (2018), ‘Living Walls’ at Art Alive Gallery (2013), ‘Fair and Furious: Feminine Fables’, Jebiwool Art Museum, Seoul (2004), Show at Chemould Art Gallery, Mumbai (2001), ‘The Self and the World’, at Gallery Bose Pacia Modern, New York, and Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai (1997), and ‘A Critical Difference’, show of 9 Indian Artist at Camden Art Centre, London (1993).

She has also participated in several workshops over the decades. Various publications have made repeated references to her contribution to Indian contemporary art. Parekh’s work was showcased in collaboration with the House of Dior in 2022 during Paris Haute Couture Week. A documentary film titled ‘Dwitya’ was made in 1992 on Madhvi and her equally famous husband, artist Manu Parekh, by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi.

Madhvi Parekh lives and works in Delhi.