Bansri Chavda

Bansri lives and works in Mumbai. She thinks of herself as “a storyteller of the world about us", raising the relevant questions about life, soul and awareness. Art – like meditation – is a means to dive into oneself. “My art is like a mantra given by my master – love, live, laugh, give!".

She found her artistic vocation in 2001 when her native village in Gujrat was hit by an earthquake reaching a maximum felt intensity of X on the Mercalli intensity scale. The earthquake killed between around 20.000 people, injured another 167.000 and destroyed nearly 400.000 homes. Amongst the ruin of the disaster, art stood for Bansri like the only hope to help herself and her community. “That's how I started a loving caring tango" with painting, along with an operating role as activist in her own community. Sharing and social awareness have since the deepest impact in her life and her artistic path.

Her technical process finds her more inclined to linen canvases and oils, but she may also pick up pen and ink, waters and charcoal as fine ingredients for what she calls “my art curry". It is a definely unique style melting borders between techniques in a strong and personal manner. “When I paint, I try to bring into my oils what I love in waters, and texture and quality of a charcoal. It's not conscious but it happens that way […] My art develops the best when I know where not to interfere."

It's a process near to a sort of automatic writing. “When something keeps hammering again and again, I do write on it." Bansri does not identify with her work, but rather offers herself as a medium to reveal hidden meanings that go beyond her ordinary state of consciousness, dwelling in a middle-earth between human and divine: “my works often reveal wisdom to me more when I stare at them in between."