NIKHIL CHOPRA
'Remembering Being There: First Star Agonda'
Charcoal and Pastel on paper
8 x 12 inches
NC- 01
Biography
Nikhil Chopra’s artistic practice ranges between live art, theatre, painting, photography, sculpture and installations. His performances, in large part improvised, dwell on issues such as identity, the role of autobiography, the pose and self-portraiture, reflects on the process of transformation and the part played by the duration of performance. Taking autobiographical elements as his starting point, Chopra combines everyday life and collective history; daily acts such as eating, resting, washing and dressing, but also drawing and making clothes, acquire the value of ritual, becoming an essential part of the show. The artist has exhibited and performed globally since 2005. Participation in important solo and group exhibitions include Lands, Waters & Skies, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2019); Lands, Waters & Skies, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, India (2018); Drawing a Line Through Landscape, documenta14, Athens, Greece & Kassel, Germany (2017); Blackening VI, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, UK (2017); La Perla Negra, La Bienal de Habana, Havana, Cuba (2016); Use Like Water, Sharjah Biennial 12 (2015); Give Me Your Blood and I Will Give You Freedom, Singapore International Festival for the Arts (2014); Inside Out, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy (2012); Yog Raj Chitrakar: Memory Drawing X, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai and the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2010). The artist has also performed at Performa, New York (2008); the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009); and the Yokohama Triennale (2008). Chopra lives and works in Goa.
About the Work
The drawings made in my studio often function as rehearsal acts for performances. There is a symbiotic relationship between both the modes of operation and creation, thinking through drawing but also through the body, time and space. The many drawing performances made in the last six years echo the spirit of travel, transience and nomadism. They engage with landscapes and cityscapes as subjects. They express my love for observation as an active form of engagement with a place. Most of my drawings emerge from this point, as they become the beginning of a dialogue.