Reena Saini Kallat Indian, b. 1973

Reena SAINI KALLAT's (b. 1973, Delhi, India - based in Mumbai) practice spans drawing, photography, sculpture and video. Her interest in political and social borders—and their violent cleaving through land, people and nature—resonates with the continuing aftershocks of the Partition in India, which her paternal family experienced. Kallat has researched various histories of migration, the plunder of shared natural resources for national gain, and archives of disappeared people. The idea that barriers give way, and can be subverted is pronounced strongly in Kallat’s work: where there is contact there is exchange and fusion. In the artist's own words: 

 

"There is always a sense of hope, and that lies in how we imagine our future and participate in creating it. It would be naïve of us not to recognise our interconnectedness and interdependence on each other for our existence." 

 

Her work has been widely exhibited at institutions around the world. Recent solo exhibitions include Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2023), Compton Verney, UK (2022), Firstsite, UK (2022), Norrtalje Konsthall, Sweden (2021), The National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet, Paris (2020); the Manchester Museum (2017) and Offsite, Vancouver Art Gallery (2015). She has participated at the Sharjah Art Biennale (2023), Bangkok Art Biennale (2020); Havana Biennial (2019); Busan Biennale (2016), Goteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (2011), the Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale (2011), the Asian Art Biennale, Taiwan (2009) besides others. Recent group exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York; Tate Modern, London; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; SITE SantaFe, New Mexico; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Saatchi Gallery, London; Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan; MOCA, Shanghai; Busan MOMA amongst several others.

 

Kallat's works are part of several public and private collections including Musee de Beaux Arts, Ottawa; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; Manchester Museum, UK; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. She lives and works in Mumbai, India.