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Mekhala Bahl

Mekhala Bahl

Mekhala Bahl’s artwork combines the creativity and imagination found instinctively in a child with the skill and technique of a professional artist. Working across multiple mediums including paint, ink, pencil work and quilting, Mekhala Bahl constructs colourful abstract mindscapes teeming with seemingly chaotic lines, circles, amorphous shapes and childlike drawings reminiscent of doodles. While the images scattered throughout her work (such as chairs, ice cream cones, letters) all connect back to Mekhala Bahl’s own environment and childhood experiences, the sheer abundance of these shapes allows the viewers to claim them and invest them with their own meaning. Established conventions are free to be challenged as Mekhala herself does when working with found printed-paper whose patterns she incorporates and subverts. Dominant in all her work is a sense of humour, energy and fun. As she marks, scratches, rubs, effaces, smudges and pours, her works become more of a reflective gesture than a communicative experience.

Mekhala Bahl was trained at the College of Art, Delhi and then at Rhode Island School of Design. Her practice primarily involves printmaking and painting, using materials as diverse as silk, wood, plastic and paper. She has worked, and exhibited in many cities and different countries like Italy, France, Japan and America. Selected exhibitions include Indigo Blue Art, Singapore [2013], The Geometry of Error, Gallery Espace, Delhi [2009], Blur, Monte Castello Art Gallery, Italy.

She has participated in multiple workshops and residencies, serving as the Artist-in-Residence at the International School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture at Umbria, Italy. She has also been part of the Indo-French Residency Programme. In 2013, Bahl was awarded the Student of the Year in Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is also the recipient of the G.W. Hodge Ritchie Award for Excellence in Printmaking, USA in 2002.

The artist lives and works in New Delhi.

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