Singh is perhaps best known for her portraits of India's urban middle and upper class families. These images of people working, celebrating 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, of places rather than people. These photographs are taken in a diverse range of interior spaces: from the ballroom of an 18th Century palace to the humbler surroundings of a private home or from museums, libraries and seminaries to the specially constructed wedding 'stages' of the traditional marriage ceremonies. An abiding image of India is that of a teeming crowd of humanity. However, all but a few of Singh's images are devoid of the human figure and they are typified by composure rather than restlessness. The work's subtle formality is the product of intense and intimate observation, communicating a unique sense of time and place.

Dayanita Singh's book 'Go Away Closer' has recently been published by Steidl Verlag. Her work is included in the touring Global Feminisms which started at The Brooklyn Museum earlier this year. Her work has also been included in numerous exhibitions such as Das Achte Feld - Geschlechter, Leben und Begehren in der bildenden Kunst seit 1960, Museum Ludwig in 2006, Edge of Desire: Recent Art In India, which was shown at The Asia Society and Queens Museum of Art in 2005, Century City, Tate Modern, London in 2000 and Homelessness at the Pinakotek der Moderne, Munich in 2003. Other recent solo exhibitions include I am as I am, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2001, Privacy at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art, Berlin, both 2003 and Les Rencontres d'Arles Festival, Arles, France.

Click here to see images from the Chairs series, Bombay Halls series, Kerala series, Library series, Bed series and Allahabad series.

Please click on the News section of the site to read about forthcoming exhibitions and projects.

BIOGRAPHY

Born - 1961, India

Lives in Delhi

1980 - 1986
Visual Communication at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad

1987- 1988
Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the International Center of Photography in New York.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2007
Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai
Gallery Chemould, Mumbai
Kriti Gallery, Benares

2006
Nature Morte, India
Beds and Chairs, Valentina Bonomo Gallery, Rome

2005
Chairs, Studio Guenzani, Milan
Chairs, Frith Street Gallery, London
*Charis, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

2004
Les Rencontres d'Arles Festival, Arles

2003
*Privacy, Hamburger Bahnof, Berlin
*Myself Mona Ahmed, Museum fuer Indische Kunst, Berlin

2002
Scalo Galerie, Zurich & New York

2001
I am as I am, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Empty Spaces, Frith Street Gallery, London

2000
Dayanita Singh, Brussels
Dayanita Singh, Stockholm

1999
Venice Photo Biennale, Venice

1998
Another India, Crealde School of Art, Orlando
Family Portraits Nature Morte, New Delhi

1997
Images from the 90's, Scalo, Zurich

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008
Wedded Bliss: The Marriage of Art and Ceremony, Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts

2007
Les Rencontres D'Arles Photographie, Arles
Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, New York, Davis Museum & Cultural Center, Wellesley, Massachusettes

2006
Summer Exhibition, Frith Street Gallery, London
Das Achte Feld - Geschlechter, Leben und Begehren in der bildenden Kunst seit 1960, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
The Indian Subcontinent in Contemporary Art, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin

2005-07
Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India, Queens Museum of Art and the Asia Society, New York; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; MARCO, Monterrey Mexico; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley

2005
Presence, Sepia International, New York

2004
Frith Street Gallery, London
Ten Commandments, Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden

2003
Pinakotek der Modern, Munich D'Architecture of Homelessness
The Family, Windsor Gallery, Florida

2002
Red Light, Australian Center for Photography, Sydney
Kapital und Karma. Aktuelle Positionen indischer Kunst, Kunsthalle, Wien
Bollywood - Das indische Kino und die Schweiz, Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich
Banaras: The Luminous City, Asia Society, New York
Photo Sphere, Nature Morte, New Delhi

2000
Century City, Tate Modern, London

1999
Another Girl, Another Planet, New York
Indian Art, Sydney
Dayanita Singh and Manisha Parekh, Milan
Inferno and Paradiso,Umea Museum, Sweden

1998
Black and White - 50 Years and the Indian Woman, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras
Canon Top Ten Photographers, Delhi, Bombay
La Filature, Mulhouse France

1997-9
India - a Celebration of Independence, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Indianapolis
Museum of Art, Knoxville
Museum of Art, Chicago
Cultural Center, Royal Festival Hall, London
NGMA, Delhi
NGMA, Bombay
Victoria Memorial, Calcutta
Lalit Kala, Madras

1997
India - A Contemporary View, Asian Arts Museum, San Francisco
Out of India, Queens Museum of Art, New York

AWARDS

1997
Canon - India's Top Ten Photographers Award

1994
Alliance Francaise Award, for work on Tradition and Modernity in India.

1996
Palm Beach Photographic Museum Rising star of Photography Award Andreas Frank
Foundation Grant Award for Urban Families Project

BACK TO TOP

 

© 2007 Frith Street Gallery