Seema Kohli

Seema Kohli is multi-disciplinary artist, a poet, a dreamer thriving on imagination, ideas, philosophies, narratives, oral histories and myths and recreating these as images or words. Kohli has had over 32 solo shows and she explores the themes of beauty, sensuality and spirituality expressed through her works based on the concept of ‘Hiranayagarbha’ or ‘The Golden Womb’ from which we have emerged, which is self-pervading, engulfs every single thing. Decay, hybridisation and transformation, creating new identity, reshaping belongings, intimacy; a dialogue of matter and memory all constitute a visual language of her work. Her work is primarily a celebration of the female form and energy, the source of the twin forces of creation and destruction. For Kohli, as an experimental artist, poetry is a recorded conversation between her, the canvas and the rendered image. In 2013, she self-published a compilation of verses, I Am, which was performed at TEDx, Chennai. She co-authored her second book, Experiencing The Goddesses and is working on another book, which is a compilation of poetry written in the last 7 years. She received acclaim for her creativity at the Florence Biennale, 2009 where she received a Gold Award for her video Swayamsiddha-Myth, Mind and Movement. She has also received the Young Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry- Ladies Organisation Women Achievers Award in 2010 and the Lalit Kala National Award for Women in 2008. Her works have been shown at the collateral events Kochi Biennale, Birth Rights Collective, Venice Biennale of Art/Architecture. At Arco, Art Basil, and at India Art Fair among many others. She has been invited by the TEDx, WIN Conference, NGMA and various universities in India and all over the world including UConn, Chico, Harvard and Davis. Her body of artworks are in collection with museums in India and abroad including Lalit kala Akademy, Kerala Museum of Arts, personal collection of Shelly and Donald Rubin (USA) and MOSA (Brussels).