payal khandwala

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Biography

Born in 1974, brought up in Mumbai, Payal received her first Art Scholarship at the National Board Level in 1990.
She graduated with a Diploma in Fashion Design from SNDT University, Mumbai in 1994, with several awards for Illustration, Design and Construction.
In 1995 Payal moved to New York City to pursue a degree on scholarship, at the Parsons School of Design. She graduated in 1999 with honors, with a BFA in Fine Arts and Illustration.
After her return in 2002, she completed a diploma at Metafora, an international workshop for Contemporary Art in Barcelona in 2005.
In 2007, she also received Society Magazine’s Young Achievers Award in the Fine Arts category.
Her works are currently on consignment in galleries in New York, Barcelona and Mumbai and in several private collections in the US, India, France, England, South Africa and Belgium.

Solo exhibitions

2011
Parallel, Abstracts Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2007
Contour Drawings: The Female Nude The Museum Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006
Abstracts Aicon Gallery, New York
2004
Drawings 1998 - 2004 The Museum Art Gallery, Mumbai
2003
Abstracts Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2001
Abstracts Fine Arts Company, Mumbai

Selected Group exhibitions

2011
Anniversary Show Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2010
The Art of Luck: Card-o-logy II Samsara Art, Mumbai
2010
Coming of Age Hacienda Art Gallery, Mumbai
2010
Emami Chisel Art Kolkata
2010
Evolve Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2009
1 x 1 India The Loft at Lower Parel, Mumbai
2009
Card-o-logy I Hacienda Art Gallery, Mumbai
2008
India Art Summit, Delhi
2008
iWitness : The Fine Art Company, The Museum Art Gallery, Mumbai
2007
Call of the Peacock IMC Ladies Wing, Johannesburg
2007
Embodied Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai
2007
Imprints The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
2007
Understanding Oneness Kitab Mahal, Mumbai
2007
Power of Peace Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006
MYRRH Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006
Art for Concern Auction, The Taj West End, Bangalore
2006
Essence Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2006
Indian Contemporary Art at the Triangle Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
2006
The Indian Art Show The Chapel Gallery, Singapore
2006
Evam Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2005
Untitled Metafora, Barcelona
2005
Present Future NGMA, Mumbai
2005
Popular Prakashan Art Camp for book on Contemporary Art in South Asia, Istanbul, Turkey
2005
Auction for The Asiatic Library Town Hall, Mumbai
2004
Auction for PASSAGES Organization for Breast Cancer,
The Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai
2004
The Linear Show Habitat Centre, Delhi
2004
Auction ONE, Organization for children with HIV, Mumbai
2003
Ideas and Images National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
2003
Modernism Aicon Gallery, New York
2003
Harmony Nehru Center, Mumbai
2003
RPG Art Camp Marve, Mumbai
2002
Auction SOS Children’s Villages of India, Mumbai
2002
Auction SAAAIDS South Asian Aids Organization, Aicon Gallery, New York
2001
Excerpts from Diary Pages Fine Arts Company, Mumbai
2001
Auction for SAKHI South Asian Women’s Rights Organization,
Bose Pacia Modern, New York
1999
New School for Social Research New York

Artist notes

Parallel Tao Art Gallery, 5 November - 26 November 2011 “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint” - Edward Hopper

As somewhat of a traditionalist I’ve always enjoyed the simplicity of paint, the brush and a canvas. Its infinite possibilities and also its limitations.
These works are not quite expressionist in nature, they are structured and there is symmetry. But they are not strict enough to be minimal, they are not clinical nor are they mathematical. They are somewhere in between. The mark-making is organic and intuitive, yet formal.
Of all the aspects of abstraction I find colour and composition the most compelling. Its an escape from the clutter of imagery and freedom from a narrative. But what I enjoy most about the process, is its deliberateness and discipline. And especially the repitition and the pace, which has a quality of focus akin to meditation.

In the end I hope the works can transcend their physicality to evoke a unique response in the viewer.
And I hope that no one has to read this to elicit that response.

Contour Drawings: The Female Nude The Museum Gallery, 5 February - 11 February 2007 “I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.” - Bill Viola

Having worked with abstraction and within the constraints of minimalism and structure for a while, it was the right time to return to one of my favourite subjects, studying the female nude. Drawing has always been my first love.
But I wanted to continue to work large and drawing on a canvas presented an altogether different problem for me. I didn’t want to focus on making a ‘good’ drawing. I wanted more to preserve the impulse and expression of a quick figure study on paper, whilst shifting the scale to a much larger format.
So for distance and a little less control, with a pencil tied onto the end of a long stick, I stepped back and let the line take over. Except in the beginning, to plot the drawing, I looked closely at the subject and hardly ever at the canvas. My aim was to retain the pose and the personality of the model but not necessarily the proportions or the perspective.
Once I made a mark on the canvas, the pencil just mapped out the form in a continuous line that had childlike quality and a life quite its own. If at all the line broke, it found a new spot only by visual memory.

From paying attention only to the contours of the body and not on the formal elements of drawing, the pose got distorted and flattened, even exaggerated, but retained the gesture and its energy.
I kept the lines, all of them, even the ones that initially I decided not to keep. And plotted some colour but only enough so as to not lose the quality of the line and the simplicity of the sketch.

The challenge was to maintain the spontaneity, to try not to correct or to perfect, only to record the information the eye saw, to pick only the most important line and shape to interpret the pose.
The result was an abstraction of the human body that was unrestrained and raw. And a drawing with distinct character and it’s own identity.

Drawings: 1998 - 2004 The Museum Gallery, 23 February – 7 March 2004

Line is perhaps the most integral component of form and structure. It is this framework with which the artist visualizes a drawing, sculpture or painting. In its purest form, lines come together to plot a narrative; in a non figurative work, they form the building blocks for the subsequent abstraction. The marks an artist chooses to make ultimately set him apart from another. It is with this vocabulary that he will create a vision that is unique.
The subject often determines this choice of line. Gestures, contours, movement have the power to change lines. The medium and scale, allow for spontaneity and chance, and give the map texture and weight.
I try, when I draw to let the line control me. I eliminate that which I think is redundant and introduce impulse. I simplify and complicate, flatten and build.

This is a collection of drawings that celebrate line. It’s strength and it’s significance. And a few of it’s endless possibilities.

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