Frith Street Gallery

b. 1961, India

Dayanita Singh is perhaps best known for her portraits of India’s urban middle and upper class families, these images of people working partying or resting at home, show Indian life without embellishment, she explores another side of India; the place that she belongs to and understands. Her recent work has concentrated on another form of portraiture, that of places rather than people. It includes photographs taken in a diverse range of interior spaces, from the ballroom of an 18th Century palace to the humbler surroundings of a private home, from museums, libraries and seminaries, to the specially constructed wedding ‘stages’ for traditional marriage ceremonies. The work’s subtle formality is the product of intense and intimate observation, communicating a unique sense of time and place.

A solo exhibition of Dayanita Singh’s was staged at Frith Street Gallery in 2008. Her book project Sent a Letter has recently been published by Steidl Verlag. Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, 2007; Chairs at Frith Street Gallery, 2005; Privacy at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art, Berlin and I am as I am, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2001. Notable group shows include Global Feminisms at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley; Das Achte Feld – Geschlechter, Leben und Begehren in der bildenden Kunst seit 1960, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2006; Edge of Desire: Recent Art In India, Asia Society and Queens Museum of Art, 2005; Century City, Tate Modern, London, 2000 and Homelessness at the Pinakotek der Moderne, Munich, 2003.

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