atul bhalla

Prof. Atul Bhalla

Visual Artist and Professor of Visual Art
HoD. Department of Art and Performing Arts
Shiv Nadar Institute of Eminence
Delhi NCR
Email: atulbhalla1@gmail.com
atul.bhalla@snu.edu.in

Education

1990 Master in Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
School of Art, Northern Illinois University. USA.

1987 Bachelor in Fine Arts (B.F.A)
College of Art, Delhi University, New Delhi. India

On Going

2022-24 False clouds and Real Deluges

World Weather Network. 28North Parallel KHOJ Studios. New Delhi.
https://khojstudios.org/programme/28th-parallel-north-an-expeditionary-weather-station/

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 Auscultation - False Clouds and Real Deluges-I. Vadehra Art Gallery, NewDelhi. India

2018 Anhedonic Dehiscence.Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. India

2016 Adrift (On Dvaipayana). Light-box Gallery, Harvard Art Museums.Harvard University. MA.USA.

Looking for lost water. Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Rome. Italy.

2015 You always step into the same river. SepiaEYE. New York. USA

2014 ‘Ya ki kuch aur’ (It’s always about something else), Vadehra Art Gallery. New Delhi. India

2011 On the edge. Works from 2009 -11. Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. India

Water works. Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College, Easton, PA. USA

I was not waving but drowning. Installation at Harvard Art Museums MA.USA

2009 ...in another sweat. Project 88, Mumbai, Anant Art Centre, NOIDA. India

2008 Within / Without. AICON Gallery, London. UK.

2007 Remarking the river. Project 88, Mumbai and Anant Art Centre, NOIDA. India

2005 Immersions. Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, India.

Monographic exhibition of recent works, KHOJ-International Artists Association, New Delhi, India

Projects/Residencies

2023 Harvard Radcliffe Institute- Water Stories Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia.

Initiative Mittal Climate Initiative Visiting Artist 2023

2022-23 False Clouds and Real Deluges World Weather Network + Khoj International Artist Association, 28N Parallel.

Yearlong project on Climate Change. June 2022-June 2023

2020 Artist in Residence, South Asia Society, Cornell University NY USA

The waters will remember- Kala Chaupal, Avichal Foundation One month residency at Dharmaj, Khambhat. Study migrations.

Display at Rhodesia House 10 January 2020

2019 European Union Erasmus + Staff Mobility for teaching at Heidelberg University. June 8-July 8 2019.

Invitation by Prof. Dr. Monica Juneja, Chair of Global Art History Heidelberg University and Prof Christiane Brosius,

Chair of Visual and Media Anthropology. Heidelberg University, Germany.

A Time For Farewells – Residency at Haverford College. PA .USA Curation Premjish Achari

2018 Excavated Distance of Gold. Installation at the Chamber of Mines, WITS University, as part of Waters Edge.

University of Witwatersrand (WITS). ARA Mellon Fellow (Artistic Research Africa) Johannesburg. South Africa.

Invited by Dr. Lenore Manderson, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University,USA

Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

2013 ‘The Wake’. Commission for the Heritage Transport Museum, National Capital region, New Delhi. India Curation Priya Pall

2012 Nirox Foundation. South Asia Institute, Witwatersrand University, (WITS) Johannesburg. South Africa,

2011 Yamuna-Elbe project. Hamburg-Delhi. Site-specific Installations on the Elbe in Hamburg and at the Yamuna in Delhi

2010 Listener from West Heavens. Place-Time-Play. India China Contemporary Art. Shanghai, China. Curation Chaitanya Sambrani

2009 Prohelvetia – Swiss Arts Council, International Artists Residency – IAAB Studios, Basel, Switzerland

2007 Eco + Art. River Yamuna-based Residency, KHOJ, New Delhi, India

2006 Dilli dur ast, Old Delhi-based Residency, KHOJ, New Delhi, India

Participations In Curated Shows (selected)

2023 Water Stories : River Godesses, Ancestral Ritesand Climate Crisis, on view at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA.

Curation - Jinah Kim

2022 Unstill Waters, Contemporary Photography from India Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Asian Art. Washington, USA. Curation by

Dr.Carol Huh

Naya Anjor. Curation Arushi Vats Anant Art Gallery . Bikaner house, New Delhi

On Purpose. Vadehra Art Gallery . New Delhi

19^th Asian Art Biennale Dhaka Bangladesh -Curation Monjour Ahmed

Chance Chaos Catharsis- Curation Jesal Thacker .Studio Art Gallery new Delhi

Our Blue Planet - Global Visions of Water -Seattle Art Museum 2022.

Human Tides | Video Programme as part of Open City Joburg. Lara Koeseff South Project. Johannesburg South Africa

2019 On the edge of the sea. Installation at Senate House, Chennai Photo Biennale. Curation Pushpmala.N

A Time For Farewells - Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College Haverford College. PA .USA. Curation Premjish Achari

2018 Photo Fest Biennale – Showcased Artist, Houston, TX, USA.

Asymmetrical Objects,. Bhau Daji Lad Museum. Mumbai. India. Curation Tasneem Mehta Zakaria

2017 Looking for Lost water. 1^st Kuala Lumpur Biennale KL, Malaysia

Water Wisdom- India Australia. RIMT Melbourne Australia. Curation Helen Rayment and Susan Davies

Unfiltered: An Exhibition About Water. Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut. CT. USA

Part Narratives. Bikaner House. New Delhi, India. Curation Gayatri Sinha

Part Narratives. Bhau Daji Lad Museum. Mumbai, India. Curation Gayatri Sinha

A Preview to Desolation. Italian Cultural Centre. New Delhi, India. Curation Premjish Achari

Things are vanishing –. Kalakriti festival, Hyderabad,India. Curation Premjish Achari

Project Space –India Art Fair ’Meri haar kya Hogi? New Delhi, India

2016 Photo Fest Biennale – Showcased Artist, Houston, TX, USA

The Eye and The Mind. New Interventions in Indian Art’ NGMA, New Delhi., India

Imagined Futures Reconstructed Pasts. Anant Art, Bikaner House. New Delhi, India Curation Meera Menezes

2015 Off the record. Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India. Curation Bhooma Padmanabhan

Looking In /Looking out. Contemporary Indian Photography from The Gaur Collection. Stephen D. Paine Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Art and

Design, USA

One and one make eleven. Contemporary art from India, Kunsthaus Langenthal. Switzerland. Curation Eveline Suter

2014 Q.I. I see sustainable. Museo MADRE, Naples, Italy

The Other and Me. 30 Contemporary Photographers from Asia, Sharjah Art Museum. Sharjah, UAE

Floating World. Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, India. Curation Geeta Kapur

‘Walk on’. From Richard Long to Janet Cardiff - 40 years of art-walking. Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, PMG, London, NGCA Sunderland,

Aberdeen Art Gallery, UK

Fresh water. Fundación Cidade da Cultura de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

2013 Water, Europalia, Liège. Belgium. Curation Gayatri Sinha

‘The artist will be defeated by the art world’. Sarai-Reader 09. With Meera Menezes. Devi Art Foundation. NCR. India.

Towards a new world - 4 artists from India between memory and globalization, Artopia Gallery, Milan. Italy

Peak Shift Effect. Vadehra Art Gallery. New Delhi. India. Curation Gayatri Sinha

2012 Critical Mass. Contemporary Art from India, Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Israel. CurationTami Katz-Frieman and Rotem Ruff

Urban Myths and Realities. Empire Shrine Gallery. New Delhi. India. Curation Oindrilla Maity

2011 Beyond the self. Contemporary portraiture from Asia, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Australia. Curation Christine Clarke

Paris-Delhi-Bombay - India though the eyes of Indian and French artists, Centre Pompidou. Curation Sophie Duplaix and Fabrice Bosteau.

Home Spun. Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi. India. Curation Girish Shahane

2010 West Heavens. Place-Time-Play – India-China Contemporary Art, Shanghai. China. Curation Chaitanya Sambrani, Johnson Chang.

Water. Andrew W. Mellon Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ.USA Curation Donna Gustafsson.

2009 4th Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka. Japan.

Living off the Grid. Anant Art Centre, NOIDA, India Curation Meera Menezes,

Immersions. Anant Art Centre, NOIDA, India. Curation Deeksha Nath

In Focus. Contemporary Indian Photography. Crimson - The Art Resource, Bangalore, India.

2008 India Moderna, IVAM Institute of Modern Art, Valencia. Spain Curation Juan Guardiola

Video Zone-4. 4^th International Video Art Biennial, Israel. Curation Sergio Edelsztein and Rotem Ruff

Where in the world? Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon. India. Curation Kavita Singh

Public Places/Private Spaces. Contemporary Indian Photography & Video, Newark Museum. Curation Gayatri Sinha, Paul Sternberger

Creative Emergencies. Mar Museo D’ Arte Della Citta Di Ravenna, Italy. Curation Maria Livia Brunelli and SilviaCirelli

Still Moving Image Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, India. Curation Deeksha Nath

2007 City. Cite. Site. Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, India. Curation Latika Gupta

Relocating Masculinities, School of Art and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. India. Curation Mohd.

Ahmad Sabih, Rahul Dev, Srinayani and T.Sanatilanan

2006 Watching me watching India. Fotographie Forum, Frankfurt. Germany

2005 Self x social, School of Art and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. India. Curation Geeta Kapoor

Museum Collections

Smithsonian Collection. Washington DC. USA
Harvard Art Museum. Cambridge, USA
Devi Art Foundation. Gurgaon, India
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. New Delhi, India
The Spencer Museum of Art. University of Kansas, KA. USA
Bindu -The Gaur Collection- New Jersey, USA

List of invited talks

2023

On the Edge -Seminar Atul Bhalla, Mittal Climate Initiative Visiting Artist seminar.Harvard University Cambridge. USA
Have you ever seen the river? Atul Bhalla, Mittal Climate Initiative Visiting Artist Talk . Harvard University. Cambridge, USA
Artist Talk +Panel discussion You always step into the same river. Smithsonian National Museum of Asia Art Washington DC. USA
Gallery Walk- You always step into the same river Smithsonian National Museum of Asia Art Washington DC. USA
Artist Talk You always step into the same river NIAS Amsterdam
Artist Talk. Anhedonic Dehiscence. JSLA Jindal Global University Sonipat NCR.India
You always step into the same river -Knowledge Festival Bodoland University. Kokrajhar Assam
Methodologies of witnessing. .Panel discussion Anant Art Gallery . Bikaner house, as part of Naya Anjor. Curation Arushi Vats
Water – HCTS Heidelberg University. Monica Juneja. Online

2019

Artist Talk -Emami Art Mentorship Programme 2020
You always step into the same river. Artist Talk. A Time For Farewells Haverford College. PA, USA
You always step into the same river. Artist Talk. School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, IL. USA
You always step into the same river. Visiting artist and scholar lecture series .Department of Art And Art History. East Lansing, Michigan State University. MI. USA

2018

The lowest depths: Partition through objects of fictitious togetherness/Fictitious objects of togetherness Workshop -Re-creating certitude. The aesthetics of history in art and photography collections in a transoceanic perspective. Global Studies. Aarhus University. Denmark.
Excavated Distance of Gold Illustrated talk for Waters Edge at the Chamber of Mines. University of Witwatersrand. (WITS), Johannesburg, South Africa.ARA Mellon Fellow (Artistic Research Africa)

2016

Artist Talk. South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, CA. USA
Artist Talk. Dept. of Art. University of California, Merced.CA. USA.
CISA Artist Talk. Dept. of Art History, University of California. CA.USA.

2015

Artist Talk. 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore. Karnataka. India
Panel Talk at ‘South Asian Art-Global publics and politics’, New York University. NY. USA
‘In conversation with Atul Bhalla, New York University’, Urban Democracy Lab, New York University. NY. USA
Artist Talk. Nelson Atkins Museum. Kansas City, KA.USA
Artist Talk. Spencer Museum. Kansas University, KA.USA
Artist Talk. T C Colley lecture series. Rhode Island School of Design. RI.USA

2014

Panel Talk and book release of “You always step into the same river?’ Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India
Illustrated Talk as part of the Symposium ‘Spaces for water’. Nehru Memorial Library and Museum, New Delhi. India

2012

DIVA lecture. University of Witwatersrand. (WITS), Johannesburg, South Africa

2011

Artist Talk. Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College. Easton. PA. USA
Through the artist’s lens: Exploration of the photographic works of Atul Bhalla. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums. Cambridge MA.USA
Panel discussion, In conversation with Atul Bhalla, Sackler Museum Harvard Art Museums with Sugata Bose, James Wescoat, Deborah Martin Kao. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums. Cambridge MA.USA
Artist Talk. College of Art. Banaras Hindu University. Varanasi. UP. India

2010

Artist Talk – Yamuna -Elbe Project. Max Mueller Bhavan. New Delhi. India

Awards

1994 Honorable Mention, National Exhibition of Art, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
1991 Painting Award, Yuva Mahotsav, Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi
1990 Best Graduate Painting Award, Northern Illinois University, Illinois, USA
1988-90 Tuition Waiver, Northern Illinois University, Illinois, USA

List of publications

Monographs and Catalogues by Galleries

Atul Bhalla ‘You always step into the same river’ - (Vadehra Art Gallery, 2014)
Atul Bhalla ‘Yamuna Walk’ - Atul Bhalla. Sepia EYE Publications. University of Washington Press, 2012
Atul Bhalla ‘What will be my defeat?’ - Atul Bhalla (Galerie für Landschaftskunst. Hamburg, 2013)
Atul Bhalla ‘In Another Sweat’- Atul Bhalla (Anant Art Gallery. New Delhi 2009)
Atul Bhalla ‘Immersions’ - Atul Bhalla (AICON Art Gallery. London 2008)
Atul Bhalla ‘Immersions’ - Atul Bhalla (Anant Art Gallery. New Delhi 2007)

Bibliography

Infrastructure and Form. Karin Zitzevitz University of California Press.
Bhalla, Atul: overview, Page 14-15; and art infrastructures, Pages 185-86;
and displacement of the viewer's attention, pages 182, 184; in 48°C
Public.Art. Ecology (2008 International Public Art Festival, Khoj), pages 180,
229; 186; and tactility/the haptic, page 185; water infrastructure as focus of,
pages 180, 182-84, 185-86. Works: I was not waving but drowning II (2005
series), 182, 183, 185; Mumbai Walk, 183; The Yamuna Project (2007 two-
per- son Khoj residency pages 163, 180, 186; Yamuna Walk (2007), pages
183-84, 185, 185.
Can Art History be made Global. Meditation from the Periphery. Monica Juneja
De Gruyter.2023 Pg 236-244
Bhalla A. You always step into the same river. In Liquescent Materiality: Water in Global South Asia, (1500-2000). Page 276. Edited By Venugopal Madipatti and Sugata Bose. New Delhi: Routledge 2019
Bhalla A. River. In Shifter, 22 nd issue, Dictionary of the possible. Edited by Rit Shrestha Premnath and Avi Alpert (http://shifter-magazine.com/all-issues/22- dictionary-of-the-possible)
Bhalla A. What will be my defeat? - Published by - GFLK Galerie für Landschaftskunst. Hamburg, Germany.2013
Bhalla A. Yamuna Walk –. SepiaEYE publications. University of Washington Press, Seattle and London. 2012
Rethinking Place in South Asian and Islamic Art, 1500-Present –Oct 2016 by Deborah S. Hutton (Editor), Rebecca M. Brown (Editor)
West Heavens - Place-Time-Play. Exhibition Catalogue. Curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, Commissioner –Johnson Chang,.pg 58-63, 156, 155. 2012
Critical Mass. Contemporary Art from India. Exhibition Catalogue. Curated by Tami Katz-Frieman Rotem Ruff .pg 58-63, 156, 155. 2012
Home Spun Devi Art Foundation. Exhibition Catalogue. Curated by Girish Shahane.pg 49-50. 2011
Paris-Delhi-Bombay. Centre Pompidou. Exhibition Catalogue. Curated by Sophie Duplaix and Fabrice Bousteau . Essay Nancy Adjania pg. 69.70,156-159.
Indian Subway. Exhibition Catalogue, Curated by Yashodhara Dalmia. Vadehra Art Gallery. New Delhi. India
Living Off The Grid. Exhibition Catalogue, Curated and edited by Meera Menezes. Anant Art Gallery. New Delhi. India
A Monumental Tour. Exhibition Catalogue, Curated and Edited by Seon Ryerong CHO. pg. 11 and pg 21-24. Coreana Museum Of Art. Seoul.Korea.
Khoj Book, edited by Pooja Sood, A phenomenology of encounters at KHOJ, by Geeta Kapur; pg. 65-67. And pg. 584-589. Collins/ Harper Collins Publishing, India.
Art and Visual Culture in India, edited by Gayatri Sinha; Language of an idealized revolt, by Deeksha Nath; pg. 262.Marg Publications
The 4 th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2009, pg.18, Where is the Tomorrow, pg.38, pg.147, pg.155, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
In Focus ‘Contemporary Indian photography’, Crimson ‘the art resource’, Bangalore, India, 2009
Immersions, Anant Art Gallery, Curated by Deeksha Nath, April-May 2009, New Delhi, NOIDA.
Mutant Beauties, Curated by Gayatri Sinha, Anant Art Gallery, Noida, New Delhi, November 2008-January 2009, pg.3, pg.18 - 21
Video Zone – 4, Pg. 243,245,
India Moderna – IVAM, pg. 309, Institute of Modern Art, Valencia.Spain, 2008
…. Within/Without.. Aicon