The Open Window | Tara Sabharwal

“If a mirror plays a critical role in a Indian feminist politics of the 80ies, by asserting subjectivity of women artists, Sabharwal seeks the transparency of an open window to look on to the world in which abstraction as a style warrants neither apology nor justification. It is a language that is open for all, which can be made one’s own by a tautology of one’s practice- I paint because I paint.

They are about deep spaces, of the mind, of the subconscious, undersea, night sky or about light itself. They are floating spaces without a horizon ……. they set into motion the poetics of paint and a dialectic between the familiar and the uncanny.”

- Parul Dave Mukherji, Professor, JNU, Delhi

“In these paintings, I aim to hold my mind in suspension over a field of possibilities, in raw, potent \'shapes’ before my conscious mind orders them into structures and narratives, in shapes that stir a deep, mysterious longing within me.”

–Tara Sabharwal

Tara Sabharwal is an international artist who hails from Delhi and is based in the USA, for the last 30 years. She left India in 1982, after completing her graduation at MS University, Baroda, to pursue a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Art, London. Over a career that spans 35 years, she has had over 40 solo shows in USA, UK, Japan, Germany and India.

Having received wide acclaim in the West, including several international awards, grants, and residencies: the British Council, Myles Meehan, and Durham Cathedral fellowships in the UK, the Joan Mitchell (CALL), Gottlieb and International collaborations awards in the USA, among others. She has taught art at the Newcastle and Sunderland art colleges, UK, The Guggenheim Museum, Cooper Union, Studio in a school, City University (CUNY), Rubin Museum of Art, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and the Women’s Studio Workshop, USA.

Her work is in the collection of the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and DLI Museum (UK): the Peabody Essex Museum, New York Public Library and the Library of Congress (USA).

Tara Sabharwal will feature at a VoCA Talk (Voices of Contemporary art) in Nov 2017. She will be in conversation with Robin Clark of MOMA (SF) to discuss her life, work, and legacy as an international artist.