Kanwal Dhaliwal |
Kanwal Dhaliwal (b.1960-India) has drawn, sculpted and painted many themes from the life around him, whether he was in the country he grew up in or in the country he learned to call home. To start with (1985-95) the ‘Deorhee’ (doorway) interested him, a connection of the house to the outside world in a village-house of Panjab. This was mainly the women’s place. However his faces, done like landscapes, are more apparent on males where the land and their lives are really intertwined and this is reflected on their faces in the series –‘The Courts of Law’. His next series ‘The Dilemma’ (1996-00) shows split personalities who wonder where they are, why, and how. Then followed ‘The Roots’ (2001-onwards). Here are uprooted trees, torn roots, trees, which look full and flourishing but lack roots, with big gaps between them and the earth. Black and white dramas, trees hidden by black light and shade were now a part of Dahaliwal’s vision. In his latest series of paintings (2008-onwards) he has painted the personality portraits of such extraordinary individuals who have been either the victims of the unjust socio-political system or the ones who challenged such a system, or both. Where there are writers, poets, social activists, freedom-fighters and scholars in his selection, there also are ordinary souls who became extraordinary simply by being subjected to live under such circumstances that turned them into the rare examples of human endurance of pain and humiliation.
Exhibitions Rev It Up - Women’s History Month, Espacio Gallery, London, 2015 Second Nature, Espacio Gallery, London, 2014 The Valiant Ones - Portraiture of Extraordinary Lives, Solo, Ambedakr Hall, London, 2013 The Roots, Artist's Centre, Solo, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, India, 2011 Exhibition of Imaginative Portraits, RBSA Gallery Birmingham, 2008 Battersea Contemporary Art Fair, London, 2007 Selected Works, Solo, Nehru Centre, the cultural wing of the Indian High Commission, Solo, London, 2005 Figure and the Face, Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, London, 2004 Floral Expressions, Blue Wing Gallery, Kew, Richmond, London, 2003 Exposition Le Corbusier de Chandigarh à Ronchamp, Ronchamp, Solo, France, 2002 Kew Bridge Summer Art Show, Steam Museum, Kew Bridge, London, 2001 Salon D’ Automne, Couthenans, France, 2001 Open Studios, Redlees Art Studios, Isleworth, London, 2000 The Village, Solo, Trivani Gallery, Trivani Kala Sangam, New Delhi, India, 1995 Regional Art Exhibition, National Art Fair, Banglore, India, 1994 The Village, Solo, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, India, 1993 Sirjana-93, Galleries of the National Academy of Art, New Delhi, India, 1993 The Ambassador’s Choice, The National Museum of Modern Art, New Delhi, India, 1991 A Tribute to Gogh, Punjab Kala Bhawan Chandigarh, India, 1990 Annual Exhibition, Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, India, 1983 Articles Kanwal Dhaliwal, Immigration, by Swapna Vora |
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