"I am primarily an image- maker, and I want the viewer to be drawn in, to be gripped by the play of images. The temperature of colour, the hardness of line or the juxtaposition of shapes are attempts at precisely devising a web of interaction for the viewer. I trust her to feel a range of her own emotions."
– Anju Dodiya
Anju Dodiya (1964, born and based in Mumbai, India) employs portraiture to explore inner worlds and psychological states—what she terms “emotional theatre”. Through her primary medium of painting, she depicts protagonists from popular fictions, mythologies, art history and personal experience, setting them against surreal backdrops that draw viewers into a realm of imagination and introspection.
Since the 1990s, Dodiya has developed a distinct visual language by combining her watercolour compositions with a bold, hard-edged use of charcoal. In works such as Untitled (Leda) (1996), Bond (1998) and Marching with Mirrors (2020) figures appear in dramatic states of unrest while surrounded by props such as screens, curtains, and Art Nouveau furniture and costumes. These are frequently used by Dodiya to symbolise the fragile divide between the interior and exterior, real and imagined.
Anju Dodiya obtained her BFA in Painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai in 1986. Her work can be found in major collections including the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Art Institute of Chicago; Cincinnati Art Museum; The Drawing Center, New York; and Tate, London.
Notable exhibitions include Prussian Blue (2023), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Noida; Woman Is As Woman Does (2022), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum, Mumbai; Visions from India (2020), Columbia Museum of Art; Connecting Threads (2018), Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai; No Parsi is an Island (2016), National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Painted Encounters – Parsi Traders and the Community (2016), National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; and Continuing Traditions (2015), Musée de la Toile de Jouy, Jouy-en-Josas. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including Thinking Historically in the Present (2023), 15th Sharjah Biennial; Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life (2018), 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi; The Future and Reality (2012), 5th Beijing Biennale; and Making Worlds (2009), 53rd Venice Biennale.
Dodiya had her artist residency at the STPI Workshop in 2007, resulting in the exhibition All Night I Shall Gallop (2008).