Born in 1969 in London, United Kingdom
Lives and works in Delhi, India

Bharti KHER

Bharti Kher’s oeuvre spans more than two decades and includes paintings, sculptures and installations. Throughout her practice she has displayed an unwavering relationship with surrealism, narrative, and the nature of things. Inspired by a wide range of sources and making practices, she employs the readymade in wide arc of meaning and transformation. Kher’s works thus appear to move through time, using reference as a counterpoint and contradiction as a visual tool. Her chimeras, mythical monsters, and allegorical tales combine references that are at once topical and traditional, political and poetic.
 
Kher studied her Foundation Course in Art and Design at Middlesex Polytechnic London, and received a fine art BA in painting, with honors. at Newcastle Polytechnic, United Kingdom. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and has been included in scores of group exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide.

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education

1988-91
- Foundation Course in Art & Design Newcastle Polytechnic, BA Honours, Fine Art, Painting

1987-88
- Middlesex Polytechnic, Cat Hill, London, UK

solo shows

2022
- Bharti Kher: Ancestor, Public Art Fund, Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park, New York, USA
- Bharti Kher. The Body is a Place, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK

2021
- Strange Attractors, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India

2020
- A Consummate Joy, IMMA, Dublin, Ireland
- The Unexpected Freedom of Chaos, Galerie Perrotin, New York 

2019
- A wonderful anarchy, Hauser&Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK

2018
- Djinns, things, places, Galerie Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
- Messengers, Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA 
- Chimeras, Pasquart Kunsthaus Centre d'art, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland 
- Points de départ, points qui lient, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada

2017
- Bharti Kher : Sketchbooks and Diaries, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA
- Dark Matter (MM), Museum Frieder Burda Salon Berlin, Germany 

2016
- The Laws of Reversed Effort, Galerie Perrotin, Paris
- This Breathing House, Freud Museum, London
- BHARTI KHER Matter, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
- In Her Own Language, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, Australia

2015
- Not All Who Wanders Are Lost, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA

2014
- three decimal points. Of a minute of a second of a defree, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich
- Misdemeanors, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2013
- Anomalies, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea
- Bind the Dream State to your Waking Life, Galerie Nature Morte, New Delhi, India

2012
- Many, (too) many, more than before, Galerie Perrotin, Hong Kong
- Bharti Kher, Parasol Unit Foundation for contemporary art, London
- The hot winds that blow from the West, Hauser & Wirth, New York

2011
- Leave your smell, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris

2010
- Disturbia, utopia, house beautiful, Gallery SKE, Bangalore, India
- Inevitable undeniable necessary, Hauser & Wirth, London

2008
- Sing to them that will listen Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
- Virus, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK

2007
- An absence of assignable cause, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
- An absence of assignable cause, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India

2006
- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup, Gallery 88 and Ske Gallery, Mumbai, India

2004
- Quasi-, mim-, ne-, near-, semi-, -ish, -like, Gallery Ske, Bangalore, India
- Hungry Dogs Eat Dirty Pudding, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India

2001
- The Private Softness of Skin, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India

2000
- The Private Softness of Skin, Bose Pacia Modern, New York (cat), USA

1999
- Telling Tails, New Delhi, India
- Telling Tails, Galerie F.I.A, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1997
- Galerie F.I.A, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1995
- Art Heritage, (cat), New Delhi, India

1993
- AIFACS, New Delhi, India

group shows

2023
- Tie To All The Earth, Teagan Art Space, Beijing, China
- The Offbeat Sari, The Design Museum, London, Uk
- Bodies of Identities, Casino Luxembourg, Luxemburg

2022
- Pop South Asia. Artistic Explorations in the Popular, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
- Uncombed, Unforeseen, Unconstrained, Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello/Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, Venice, Italy
- Chromophilia, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland

2021
- Hub India: Classical Radical, Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino, Torino, Italy

2020
- Tantra : enlightenment to revolution, The British Museum, London, UK
- Relations (Diaspora and Painting), Fondation Phi, Montreal, Canada 
- Contemporary Female Identities in the Global South, Joburg Contemporary Art Fondation, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 21st-Century Art from the Pizzuti Collection, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, USA
- Résonance, Fondation Opale, Switzerland
- Animals in Art, Arken, Ishøj, Denmark
- Dhaka Art Summit : Seismic Movements, Bangladesh 
- Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada 

2019
- Les arts du Tout-Monde, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- Driving Forces: Contemporary Art from the Collection of Ann and Ron Pizzuti, Columbus Museum of Art and Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, USA
- In the Company of Artists, 25 Years of Artists-In-Residence, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA
- Desire in Art, from the 20th Century to the Digital Age, IMMA, Dublin, Ireland
- Public Art Exhibition, Harvard Business School, Boston, USA
- La Lumière des Mondes, Domaine des Etangs, Massignac, France
- Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, Canada

2018
- Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, Art Gallery of Alberta - Alberta, Canada
- Facing India, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg - Wolfsburg, Germany
- Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300-Now), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
- My Monster: The Human Animal Hybrid, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
- I See You, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, USA
- Surface Work,  Victoria Miro, London, UK
- The Sculpture Park, Madhavendra Palace at Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur, India
- Bronze Age c.3500 BC - AD 2018, Firstsite, Colchester, England

2017
- Fond illusions, Perrotin, New York, USA
- Portable Art: A project by Celia Forner, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland
- Versus Rodin: Bodies across space and time, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
- Pizzuti Collection, Visions from India. Transforming Vision: 21st Century Art from the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus OH
- Salon, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland
- Sub-Plots: Laughing in the Vernacular, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India
- Approaching Land, Akara Art Gallery, Mumbai, India

2016
- I Prefer Life, Weserburg, Bremen, Germany
- Present, Johyun Gallery, Busan, Korea
- The Future Is Already Here – It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

2015
- Go East: The Gene & Brian Sherman Contemporary Asian Art Collection, curated by Suhanya Raffel
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Don’t Shoot the Painter – UBS Art Collection, Villa Reale’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan, Italy
- Codes of Culture, SKE Gallery, New Dehli, India

2014
- Whorled Explorations, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India
- Girl - curated by Pharrel Williams, Galerie Perrotin, Paris
- Entre deux expositions. Collections et nouvelles acquisitions de l'Institut, Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux, France
- Here Today...A major exhibition marking 50 years of the IUCN Red List, The Old Sorting Office, London

2013
- Textile – Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art from Klimt to the Present, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
- Quartiers d'été, Collection de l'Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, villa les Roches Brunes, Dinard, France
- Trade Routes, Hauser & Wirth, London, England
- We are Ours: A Collection of Manifestos for the Instant, Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi, India
- Art & Textiles – Fabric as Material and Concept in Modern Art from Klimt to the Present, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany

2012
- Misled by Nature: Contemporary Art and the Baroque, Art Gallery of Alberta, Canada (Travelling Exhibition)
- Dot. Systems. From Pointillism to Pixelation, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Germany
- La Belle & la Bête, Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux, France
- India: Art Now, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
- The First Kiev Biennale of Contemporary Art: The best of times, the worst of times. Rebirth and apocalypse in contemporary art’, Kiev, Ukraine
- Critical Mass, Contemporary art from India, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel

2011
- Indian Highway V, MAXXI Museum, Roma
- Seduction by masquerade, Nature Morte, Delhi, India
- Paris Delhi Bombay, Centre Pompidou, Paris
- Indian Highway IV, Museé d'art contemporain de Lyon
- Festival der Tiere, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria
- Maximum INDIA, John Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC

2010
- Tokyo Art Meeting. Transformation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
- Pattern ID , Akron Art Museum, One South high Akron Ohio, US
- The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, The Saatchi Gallery, London
- Tauba Auerbach, Matthew Day Jackson…, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris
- Gothenburg Culture Festival Gothenburg, Sweden
- Lille3000: The Silk Road. Saatchi Gallery London in Lille, Tri Postal, Lille
- Indian Highway, Herning Kunstmuseum, Denmark
- Signs of Life. Ancient Knowledge in Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Luzern,Lucerne
- Susan Hefuna, Bharti Kher, Fred Tomaselli: Between the Worlds, Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland
- Facing East: Recent Works from China, India and Japan from the Frank Cohen Collection, Manchester Art Gallery, England
- Pattern ID, Akron Art Museum, US

2009
- Marvellous Reality, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India
Shifting Shapes. Unstable Signs, Yale University School of Art, New Haven CT
Narratives from India in the 21st century: Between Memory and History, Madrid / Casa Asia, Barcelona, Spain
- Who’s Afraid of the Artists? A Selection of Works from the Pinault Collection, Palais des Arts de Dinard, France
- Bharti Kher, Yayoi Kusama, Eva Rothschild, Mindy Shapero, Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY
- Les Artistes Indiens d’Aujourd’hui, Palais Bénédictine, Fécamp, France
- Nature Nation, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel
Re-imagining Asia. A Thousand Years of Separation, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, England (Travelling Exhibition)

- Where in the world, curated by Kavita Singh, Shukla Sawant and Naman Ahuja, Devi
- Art foundation, New Delhi, India
- Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art, Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria
- Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art, The National Museum of Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
- Indian Highway, curated by Gunnar B. Kvaran, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway

2008
- Indian Highway, curated by Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
- Mutant Beauty, Anant Art Gallery, curated by Gayatri Sinha at the Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
- Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
- Indian Focus, Espace Claude Berri, Paris
- Everywhere is war, Bodhi Art Bombay, curated by Shaheen Merali, (cat.)
- Still moving Image, Devi Art Foundation, curated by Deeksha Nath at the Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, India (cat.)
- Expenditure, the Busan Biennale, directed by Kim, Won-Bang at The Busan Museum of Modern Art, Korea
- Comme des bêtes, (Like animals), Fine Arts Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, curated by Bernard Fibicher
- Re-imagining Asia, A thousand years of separation, curated by Shaheen Merali and Wu Hang, at the House of world cultures (cat)
- Distant Nearness, The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, Kansas, USA
- Passage to India, Frank Cohen Collection at Initial Access Wolverhampton, UK
- India - Guest in the Giant, RAIN.bow.PEARLS, organized by Swarovski at the Kristallwelten
- New Delhi – New Wave, Primo Marella Gallery, Milano, Italy (cat.)

2007
- The Sneeze 80x80, curated by Peter Lloyd Lewis and Natasha Makowski, Cape Town, Durban
- International exhibition of sculptures and installations, organised by Arte Communications and the Department of culture of the Venice City Council.
- Urban Manners. Contemporary Artists from India, curated by Adelina von Furstenberg at Hangar Bicocca in collaboration with ART for the World Europa, Milan, Italy
- Indian Photo and Media Art: A Jouney of Discovery, FLUSS - NÖ Initiative for Photo-and Media Art, Weinviertel, Austria
- Private/Corporate IV, Sammlung DaimlerChrysler- Lekha and Anupam Poddar Collections, Berlin, Germany

2006
- Fuori Uso 2006- Altered States. Are you experienced? curated by Nicolas Bourriaud and Paolo Falcone, Ex Mercato Ortofrutticolo, Pescara, Italy
Asia Pacific Triennale, Queensland Art Gallery, (cat), Brisbane, Australia
- Le troisième Oeil, Lille 3000, curated by Caroline Naphegyi, (cat), Lille, France
- Inside outside, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India
- Hungry Gods, Arario Gallery, (cat), Beijing, China
- Made By Indians, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Art on the beach, (cat), St Tropez, France
- Long Happy Hours Thereby Happiness & Other Stories, Gallery Chemould at The Museum Gallery, Mumbai, India

2005
- Zeitsprunge Raumfolgen curated by Simone Wilke, IFA Galerie Berlin and Stutgard, (cat), Germany
- Mom and Pop, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA
- Indian Summer, curated by Deepak Anand and Jany Luga, ENSBA, (cat), Paris
- Indian Summer, Nature Morte, New Delhi
- Het offer/ an intimate I: droom en werkelijkheid, De Beverd Museum voor Grafische werkeljkheid, Breda

2004
- Contemporary Art From India, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, USA
- Vanitas Vanitatum, curated by Peter Nagy for Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India
- The SNEEZE, a Featured Film 80 artists x 80 seconds 106 minutes, curated by Natasha Makowski and Peter Lloyd Lewis, (cat), Athens, Greece
- Adrogyne, curated by Alka Pande at India Habitat Center, New Delhi, India

2003
- Crossing Generations: diverge, curated by Geeta Kapur and Chaitanya Sambrani for 40 years of Gallery Chemould, (cat), Mumbai, India
- The Tree from the Seed: Contemporary art from India, curated by Gavin Jantjes, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, (Cat), Norway
- Sirpur Paper Mills, workshop Exhibition, at Art Inc, New Delhi, India
- Bad Taste, Apparao Gallery, at The Apeejay New Media Centre, New Delhi, India

2002
- Under Construction, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, (cat), Tokyo and Japan Foundation, Japan
- Khoj Residency Show, Khoj Studios, New Delhi, India
- Creative Space, Sakshi Gallery, at Habitat Centre, (cat), New Delhi, India
- Photosphere, curated by Peter Nagy, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India
- Playgrounds & Toys, ART for The World, Geneva, in Delhi with Nature Morte
- Cutting Edge Contemporary, curated by Art Edge, NGMA Mumbai, Interiors Espana, New Delhi, India
- GLUE, curated by Peter Nagy at Sumukha Gallery, Bangalore, India
- Borderless Terrain, curated by Alka Pande, India Habitat Center, (cat), New Delhi, India
- Silence Violence, NSA Gallery, a Pulse Project, curated by Greg Streak Durban, NieBethesda and Stellenbosch, South Africa
- MANGO, A SAWCC show for Talwar Gallery, New York, USA
- Sorry For The Inconvenience, curated by Gridthya Gaeweewong for Japan Foundation, at Project 304, Bangkok, Thailand and Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery Tokyo (Cat)
- Sidewinder, curated by Gerard Hemsworth for CIMA Gallery, Kolkata, India

2001
- Art On The Move, a Sahmat Project curated by Vivan Sundaram, in 5 venues in Delhi, India
- Kitch kitch Hota Hai, curated by Madhu Jain for Gallery Espace, India Habitat Center, (cat), New Delhi, India

2000
- Open Circle Exhibition, Lakeeren art Gallery, (cat), Mumbai, India
- of, based on, or obtained by (Tradition), Nature Morte, New Delhi
- Aar Paar, an exchange between five Indian and Pakistani artists, curated by Shilpa Gupta and Hema Mulji, at Kundan Pan Shop, Karachi, Pakistan

1999
- Impact, curated by Jim Beard Gallery, Amsterdam at CCA New Delhi, India
- Embarkation’s, curated by Yashodra Dalmia, Sakshi Gallery (cat), Mumbai, India
- Icons of The Millenium, curated by Lakeeren Art Gallery, Nehru Centre, (Cat), Mumbai, India
- Boxwallahs, Art in a Public Space with De Ego, a collaborative work with Subodh Gupta at Sahay Filling Station, Gurgaon/ Mehrauli Road, N.H.8, India
- Hed end aagse Kunst uit India, Central Bureau Vande Hogeschool, Amsterdam, The Netherlands


1988
- Edge of The Century, curated by Amit Mukopadya, British Council, (cat), New Delhi, India
- Cryptograms, Lakeeren Art Gallery, (cat), Mumbai, India

1996
- Royal Overseas League Open Exhibition, Overseas House London, Edinburgh College of Art, UK
- Of Women Icons/Stars/Feasts, Eicher Gallery, (cat), New Delhi

1995
- 6th Bharat Bhawan Biennal of Contemporary Indian Arts, Bhopal, India
Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India
- Postcards for Gandhi, a Sahmat Exhibition in five cities in India

1993
- Trends in Contemporary Indian Art, Art Heritage, New Delhi, India

1991
- Aspects of British Figurative Painting (1988-93), Milton Gallery, London, UK

1990
- Fresh Art, the National Fine Art Degree Fair, the Business Design Center, London, UK
- Squires Gallery, Newcastle Polytechnic, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

public collections

- Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
- Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria
- National Museum of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
- Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
- Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany 
- Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India
- Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, India
- Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea 
- Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- The British Museum, London, United Kingdom
- Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
- Worcester Art Museum, Worcester MA, USA
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN, USA
- North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC, USA
 

awards

2015
- Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France)

2010
​- ARKEN Art Prize

2007
- YFLO Woman Achiever of the Year

2004
- French Government residency, Paris, France

2003
- The Sanskriti Award

2002
- Khoj Residency, New Delhi, India

WORKSHOPS

2002
- Sirpur Paper Mills, Hyderabad, India
- Silence Violence, A Pulse project, Durban and Niebethesda, South Africa

2000
- Pipe Dreams Workshop 2000, Kosi Kalan, UP, India
- Open Circle Workshop, Mumbai, India

1997
- Khoj Artist’s Workshop, (cat), Sikribagh, Modinagar, India

bibliography


2018
- Sen Aveek | Bharti Kher: Chimera | Verlag Far Moderne Kunst

2017
- Cavalchini Pierrana | Bharti Kher - Sketchbooks and Diaries | Corraini Edizioni

2016
- Augaitis Daina, | Bharti Kher - Matter | Black Dog Press

2014
- Poddar Shandhini | Misdemeanours - Bharti Kher | Rockbund Art Museum

0000
- NG Elaine W., KALIDAS Swaminathan | Bharti Kher - bind, eyes open | Perrotin

  • October 26, 2022
    The Guardian — 4 PAGES

  • September 14, 2022
    Indian Link — 2 PAGES

  • September 13, 2022
    Hyperallergic — 3 PAGES

  • September 9, 2022
    Artnews — 4 PAGES

  • September 1, 2018
    Artforum — 1 PAGE

by Kanu Agrawal

Bharti Kher creates fantastic fables populated by animals awash in a great primal wave of semen-shaped bindis, pantheons of female human-ape hybrids, and spectral hosts in dainty domestic settings gone awry. With the wit and irreverence of a prankster and a mad scientist, she brings a camp sensibility to her fables which unfold against the backdrop of a technological and ecological dystopia where machines, humans, animals, and nature are out of joint. Kher’s hybrid creatures are fabricated from such a dystopian repository which architect Rem Koolhaas defines as “junkspace, a domain of feigned, simulated order, a kingdom of morphing.” Junkspace is a playful and residual spatial disorder that results from the unregulated growth of cities. Through her morphed objects and animals, Kher revels in the discomfort and comedy that result from her encounters with metropolitan and small-town India.

Artists engaged with new paradigms of global and national space typically choose one of two paths. They may often reflexively mirror tropes from public culture or retreat into reflective self-inquiries seeking respite from the chaos of the outside world. Kher chooses to reside in-between. Firstly, she draws on her own dual identity as an Indian with a British background. Secondly, she locates her work in-between a society, entrenched in class divisions and prescribed gender roles, that retains a strong desire to be, but has never been, ‘truly modern’ which for sociologist Bruno Latour is also ‘truly hybrid,’ a condition where distinctions between humans and nature, ecology and politics are blurred. Seeking such a blurring herself, Kher finds herself in-between the exterior, a society maladjusted to the vagaries of a global market, and the interior, a world of rituals and repressed desires. For Kher, morphing is a survival technique. It is a unique system of camouflage and deception engaged to resist old patriarchal regimes and to invent new hybrid worlds and hybrid creations. Kher’s creations poke fun at their own trajectory: rootless, as they traverse their in-between worlds.


From Third Eye to Second Skin: Some notes on the Bindi

by Anita Roy

The bindi, or tikka, is the symbol par excellence of Indian femininity. It’s so simple - a red dot on the forehead. Nothing more complicated, you’d have thought, than a full stop. It says “I’m a woman” and “I’m an Indian”. Straightforward sentences, and yet there are few more complex ideas than gender and nationality.
Identity, after all, is a complicated business: the ‘I’ one carries around, that peers out from ones own eyes, that assesses, accepts, rejects and makes sense of the world, that blossoms in continuity through infancy to girlhood to adolescence and adulthood, is a being woven from multiple strands of social, historical and psychological threads. What face does this being present to the world, looking into the mirror, and carefully adding that cultural full stop - straight between the eyes?
There are two common misconceptions about the bindi. The first that it is a symbol of caste or religion; and the second that it symbolizes marriage, in the same way as, for example, a wedding ring does in the west. Although these are both misconceptions, they hold the seeds of some truth - they are wrong in interesting ways. In the 1960s and 70s, semioticians like Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes taught us to decode the meanings that inhere in objects, studying ‘signs’ like language. Artifacts have etymologies just as much as words, and when artifacts are used in art, it is those hidden, multiple layers which are brought to the surface.
The association with caste and/or the Hindu religion stems from a confusion or conflation of wearing bindis and receiving a vermilion tikka between the eyebrows at a temple. This mark of blessing is common throughout India. Within Hindu cosmology, the “third eye” is just here - gods, goddesses (especially Kali) and other enlightened beings are often depicted in paintings and sculptures with the third eye opened. The two eyes are used for seeing the material world, reality, everyday stuff - but the third eye sees beyond, and seeing beyond apprehends the spiritual truth that the material world is illusory (maya) and the soul is neither personal nor contained, but rather a transitory expression of cosmic, eternal oneness.
The second misconception is that wearing a bindi signals that the woman wearing it is married. Again: wrong, but not entirely. The colour red is very strongly associated with marriage, with femininity, and sexuality. My Bengali aunt has only worn black bindis since her husband died, in keeping with the tradition that widows should not wear red. But there again, the modern bindi - that comes in a handy pack, with sticky backs - is not only red, and even the plain red variety are worn by girls and women of all ages whether married or not.
Of course the other, completely valid, take on all this is - don’t be silly! Bindi’s don’t mean anything! They just look nice. “Bindis are fast becoming the accessory of choice for their sensual charm and sparkle. Try one today!” exhorts a fashion website. In any marketplace in India, you’ll find thousands of different designs, colours, and sizes. Arrows, ovals, circles, spirals, squiggles, and zigsags; overlaid with baubles, sequins; big as a medallion, tiny as a dot. And it’s not just India either. It’s a mix’n’match symbol, shaken loose of its cultural moorings and flying its colours high and bright. It’s there on the cover of Are you Experienced? by William Sutcliffe making a bright sunflower of a western backpacker’s bare bellybutton.
Like many other artists, Bharti Kher reflects a modern, indeed post-modern sensibility - a world where concepts like “authenticity” rarely come without quote marks, and where “globalization” has rendered national borders highly permeable to products, ideas, and even images. Her own cultural background, as an Indian born and brought up in England but now living and working in India, ideally positions her to explore ideas of national identity. The bindi, which forms a central motif to much of her work, is the perfect touchstone for her: like her, it refuses to be contained by narrow definitions of culture or gender, and it enables her to simultaneously explore the mundane and the marvellous.
The critic Geeta Kapur characterises a specifically female aesthetic in art, which she describes as “a woman’s worldview on the material reality of things that make up the working substance of life.” Kher’s own work often plays with imagery of the hybridity of life- . The bindi itself is the perfect meld of the sublime and ridiculous, as she says: “I love the way all these women all over the place put on their ‘third eye’ just to go and buy vegetables.”
“The cliché of the sperm surely cannot be taken earnestly,” explains Kher. “Symbolically and conceptually female and male at the same time...What happens is you are getting a contradictory visual aesthetic,” says Kher. This ultimate symbol of maleness and fertility used as the ultimate mark of female beautification results in something new altogether. The one does not cancel the other out, but the two combine to make a third idea, or thing, which shimmers with the luminescence of both.
Like Kher, I love the idea of women putting on their ‘third eye’ in order to go down to the market. It’s an unconscious gesture for the most part, and yet this little sticker, this decorative dot or squiggle, signifies so much more than mere prettiness - it inscribes each ordinary, blank forehead with the potential for enlightenment, female power, sexuality. Herein lies the transformative power of art to take the ordinary stuff of life and create something altogether new which returns us back to reality with a fresh sense of the divine, immanent all around us.

2023

ELMGREEN & DRAGSET, JR, Koak, Jean-Marie APPRIOU, Iván ARGOTE, Daniel ARSHAM, Genesis BELANGER, Anna-Eva BERGMAN, Sophie CALLE, Julian CHARRIÈRE, Johan CRETEN, Jean-Philippe DELHOMME, Mathilde DENIZE, Lionel ESTÈVE, Jens FÄNGE, Bernard FRIZE, Laurent GRASSO, Vivian GREVEN, Hans HARTUNG, Charles HASCOËT, Thilo HEINZMANN, John HENDERSON, Leslie HEWITT, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, Dora JERIDI, Susumu KAMIJO, Bharti KHER, Klara KRISTALOVA, Georges MATHIEU, Takashi MURAKAMI, Sophia NARRETT, Katherina OLSCHBAUR, Danielle ORCHARD, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Gabriel RICO, Claude RUTAULT, Emily Mae SMITH, Jesús Rafael SOTO, Josh SPERLING, Tatiana TROUVÉ, Xavier VEILHAN, Bernar VENET, Pieter VERMEERSCH, LEE Bae, QI Zhuo, SHIM Moon-Seup

October 16, 2023 - November 10, 2023

paris

60 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS
2BIS AVENUE MATIGNON 75008 PARIS

Matignon - October+ group show

2021

Iván ARGOTE, Daniel ARSHAM, Johan CRETEN, Jean-Philippe DELHOMME, Jens FÄNGE, Bernard FRIZE, Laurent GRASSO, John HENDERSON, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, Hans HARTUNG, Bharti KHER, Klara KRISTALOVA, Takashi MURAKAMI, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Yuji UEDA

- March 9, 2021

paris

2BIS AVENUE MATIGNON 75008 PARIS

Salon Perrotin Matignon

2020

Bharti KHER

July 9, 2020 - August 10, 2020

new york

130 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002

The Unexpected Freedom of Chaos

JR, Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Wim DELVOYE, Bernard FRIZE, Laurent GRASSO, Hans HARTUNG, John HENDERSON, Leslie HEWITT, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, Bharti KHER, Klara KRISTALOVA, Georges MATHIEU, Paola PIVI, Gabriel RICO, Xavier VEILHAN, XU ZHEN®

April 30, 2020 - June 18, 2020

Shanghai

3/F, 27 Hu Qiu Road, Huangpu District

Wonderland

2018

Bharti KHER

November 14, 2018 - December 15, 2018

tokyo

Djinns, things, places

2017

Kathryn ANDREWS, Sophie CALLE, Leslie HEWITT, Bharti KHER, Alicja KWADE, B. Ingrid OLSON, Cornelia PARKER, Gala PORRAS-KIM, Tatiana TROUVE

June 21, 2017 - August 18, 2017

new york

130 Orchard Street

Fond Illusions

2016

Bharti KHER

October 19, 2016 - December 23, 2016

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

The Laws of Reversed Effort

2014

Chiho AOSHIMA, Daniel ARSHAM, Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Tracey EMIN, Daniel FIRMAN, GELITIN, Laurent GRASSO, JR, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, KAWS, Bharti KHER, Klara KRISTALOVA, MR., Guy LIMONE, Ryan MCGINLEY, Takashi MURAKAMI, Prune NOURRY, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Terry RICHARDSON, Germaine RICHIER, Aya TAKANO, Xavier VEILHAN, Andy WARHOL, Marina ABRAMOVIC, Valerie BELIN, Guerrilla Girls, Alex KATZ, Annette MESSAGER, Yoko ONO, Rob PRUITT, Cindy SHERMAN, Taryn SIMON, Mickalene THOMAS, Agnès THURNAUER, Tom WESSELMANN

May 27, 2014 - June 25, 2014

paris

60 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

G I R L

curated by Pharrell Williams

2012

Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Wim DELVOYE, ELMGREEN & DRAGSET, Lionel ESTÈVE, Bernard FRIZE, Bharti KHER, KOLKOZ, Klara KRISTALOVA, Guy LIMONE, Takashi MURAKAMI, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Claude RUTAULT, Michael SAILSTORFER, Xavier VEILHAN

March 10, 2012 - April 21, 2012

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

2011

Bharti KHER

May 7, 2011 - June 18, 2011

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

Leave your smell

2010

John ARMLEDER, Tauba AUERBACH, Hernan BAS, Matthew DAY JACKSON, Bernard FRIZE, Mark GROTJAHN, Andrew GUENTHER, Sergej JENSEN, Bharti KHER, LEE Ufan, Adam MCEWEN, Olivier MOSSET, Takashi MURAKAMI, R. H. QUAYTMAN, Claude RUTAULT, Piotr UKLANSKI, Martin WOHRL

September 11, 2010 - October 30, 2010

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS
10 IMPASSE SAINT CLAUDE 75003 PARIS

2009

Chiho AOSHIMA, Sophie CALLE, Johan CRETEN, Bernard FRIZE, GELITIN, Bharti KHER, KOLKOZ, Klara KRISTALOVA, Martin OPPEL, Jean-Michel OTHONIEL, Paola PIVI, Aya TAKANO, Tatiana TROUVÉ, Piotr UKLANSKI, Chris VASELL, Xavier VEILHAN, Peter ZIMMERMANN

March 14, 2009 - May 16, 2009

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS

2008

Bharti KHER

October 21, 2008 - January 10, 2009

paris

76 RUE DE TURENNE 75003 PARIS
10 IMPASSE SAINT CLAUDE 75003 PARIS

Sing to them that will listen

"THE UNEXPECTED FREEDOM OF CHAOS" AT PERROTIN NEW YORK

"THE UNEXPECTED FREEDOM OF CHAOS" AT PERROTIN NEW ...

Bharti KHER

Bharti Kher / Exhibition at Museum Frieder Burda / Salon Berlin

Bharti Kher / Exhibition at Museum Frieder Burda...

Bharti KHER

Bharti Kher "The laws of reversed effort” Perrotin Paris

Bharti Kher "The laws of reversed effort”...

Bharti KHER

Bharti Kher at Kochi-Muziris, Biennale Kochi (India), 2014

Bharti Kher at Kochi-Muziris, Biennale Kochi...

Bharti KHER