Ashwini Bhat, Self Portrait, Yakshi (Bird of Paradise), 2023, glazed ceramic, 26 × 10 × 6 inches. Photograph by John Janca. Courtesy of the artist and Project 88.
Arriving at visual art from a background in Indian classical dance and literature, Ashwini Bhat has consistently been pushing her personal language through sculpture, installation, and film. Her ceramic sculptures, ranging in size from intimate relics to expansive wall and floor installations, utilize and stretch abstraction and color to explore intra- and extra-personal relationships between humans and nature. Bhat always comes back to her physical body as the connecting locus between the natural world and her work. Much of her recent work is influenced by the nature of California, where she lives and works. Her new exhibition at Project 88 in Mumbai marks a return not only to her homeland but also to the roots of influence that started her journey in the arts.
