A Life In Art

Contemporary visual artist Angeli Sowani speaks with Grosvenor Gallery director Charles Moore about her early life and career, as well as her recent research into some of the fascinating, forgotten stories of Commonwealth men and women who served in the two World Wars. Angeli has shown several times with Grosvenor Gallery and her current exhibition ‘Together’ runs from 15 – 30 September 2022. Grosvenor Gallery websitewww.grosvenorgallery.com Angeli Sowani’s websitewww.angelisowani.com The Spy Princess, the story of Noor Inayat Khan Instagram@grosvenorgallery @alifeinart [email protected]

Rithika Pandey is a visual artist from Mumbai. Her paintings draw on the personal, mythological and scientific to navigate the mystical spaces within our culture and technological environments. In her complex and deeply personal paintings, she deals with issues such as hybridity, displacement and femininity. In this episode, we talk about her inspiration, travel and how music is integral to her work.Her exhibition, ‘Only What Is, Never Another’ runs at Grosvenor Gallery in London from 7- 29 April 2022.We’re also showing a selection of Rithika’s works on paper in an online viewing room, which will run alongside the exhibition. Everything, including the paper works, are at the gallery. Link to Rithika's exhibition:  ‘Only What Is, Never Another’Link to the online Viewing Room of Rithika’s works on paper (live from 1 April 2022)Related Links:'Hawala' at Paradise Row (curated by Shezad Dawood) ‘Body en Thrall’ (curated by Marcelle Joseph and Sarah Holdaway)'Bloomdido', Charlie Parker and Dizzy GillespieRithika’s websiteDo get in touch to ask about the show in advance of the opening by emailing us - [email protected], or visit our website www.grosvenorgallery.com

We are very excited to announce this special bonus episode of A Life in Art, in which William Dalrymple is interviewed by the legendary photographer Steve McCurry. The pair discuss a wide range of subjects, from their first visits India, how they met, to their work in Afghanistan and the photography of Julia Margaret Cameron. Steve also selects his favourite images from William's exhibition, which is on display at the gallery until the 30th July 2021. A recording of the zoom interview between Steve and William, can be seen on our Instagram account: @grosvenorgallery, as well as on our website: www.grosvenorgallery.com Throughout his career, McCurry has produced some of the most recognisable and iconic photographs of recent times. His work spans conflicts, vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and contemporary culture alike - yet always retains the human element that made his celebrated image of the Afghan Girl such a powerful image. In 2004, McCurry founded ImagineAsia, a non-profit organisation to help provide educational resources and opportunities to children and young adults in Afghanistan.The Traveller’s Eye is a visual diary of black and white photographs, shot over the last couple of years by William Dalrymple during his travels and research for his two books ‘The Anarchy’ and his upcoming book ‘The Golden Road’. William has followed the footsteps of the central characters in his books which has led him to travel extensively throughout the Indian subcontinent and modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan and down to Sri Lanka, locations of many of the images in the exhibition."I've been visiting all the places where this history took place – the battlefields and ruins, the mosques, Sufi shrines and temples, the paradise gardens and pleasure grounds, the barrack blocks and townhouses, the crumbling Mughal havelis and the palaces and forts."The Traveller's Eye: Photographs by William Dalrymple, runs at the gallery from the 1st - 30th July 2021. To purchase works from the show please visit our website, or look at our store on Instagram: @grosvenorgallery @alifeinartWe hope you enjoy this episode. Please like, review and share wherever you listen to your podcasts.

In this episode we talk to William Dalrymple about his love of photography and his upcoming exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery, The Traveller’s Eye, taking place from the 1st to the 30th July 2021. We discuss his artistic heroes, his technique as well as experiences from his recent research trips.William Dalrymple is one of Britain’s great historians and the bestselling author of the Wolfson Prize-winning White Mughals, the Duff Cooper prize winning The Last Mughal, and the Hemingway and Kapucinski Prizewinning Return of a King. His most recent book, The Anarchy, was long listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2019, and short listed for the Duke of Wellington medal for Military History, the Tata Book of the Year (Non-fiction) and the Historical Writers Association Book Award 2020. It was a Finalist for the Cundill Prize for History and won the 2020 Arthur Ross Bronze Medal from the US Council on Foreign Relations. William’s previous exhibitions include; The Writer's Eye, held at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, Sunaparanta: Goa Centre for the Arts and Grosvenor Gallery, London in 2016, and The Historian’s Eye, at Vadehra Art Gallery in 2019.An exhibition of William’s photographs titled The Traveller’s Eye will be displayed at Grosvenor Gallery in London from the 1st – 30 July 2021.The Traveller’s Eye is a visual diary of black and white photographs, shot over the last couple of years by William during his travels and research trips for his 2019 book The Anarchy and his forthcoming book The Golden Road. William has followed the footsteps of the central characters in his books which has led him to travel extensively throughout the Indian subcontinent, modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.The images will be published on our website on Friday 2nd July. Images and photographs of some of the places & locations mentioned in this episode will also be available to see on our podcast and gallery Instagram pages; @alifeinart and @grosvenorgallery. You can also follow William on Instragram: @williamdalrymple.  If you’d like to enquire about any of the works in the show our email address is [email protected] you for listening. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please do subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen. We’ll be back with another episode very soon. 

Mark Shields is a contemporary painter from Northern Ireland whose work is mystical and enigmatic. Mark has been working with Grosvenor Gallery since 1997, and his monumental 2011 painting ‘A Great Gulf Fixed’ is the subject of a special exhibition at the Gallery running from 19 March – 12 April 2021. In this episode we speak to Mark about the painting, with contributions from independent curator Feargal O’Malley.Mark's work has been shown across the UK and Europe and he has regularly featured in exhibitions at the Royal Ulster and Royal Hibernian Academies, as well as at the Royal Academy in London. He has had solo-exhibitions in Belfast, London, Dublin as well as on the continent. Mark’s work was selected for the BP Portrait Award numerous times in the 1990s and 2000s. His 2018 solo-exhibition ‘The Inaccessible land’ took place at the FE McWilliam Gallery in Northern Ireland.Available works, as well as details of Mark’s old shows can be seen on grosvenorgallery.com. A video of Mark discussing the piece can also be seen on our website. Please contact us for more details, [email protected] hope you enjoyed this episode. Please do subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen. We’ll be back with another episode very soon.

Zimbiri is a visual artist, born and raised in Bhutan. She currently works with traditional Bhutanese materials; ‘sa-tschen’ (earth paint) and ‘rhay-shing’ (hand-woven canvas). Her first exhibition ‘Faces', was held in 2015 and was the first female solo-exhibition ever held in Bhutan. The paintings in that show were variations of the three eyed ‘Mahayana Mask’, illustrating the metaphoric masks we wear and how we use them as a means of protection. Her recent work is a series of paintings that explore traditional Bhutanese techniques and imagery. Zimbiri’s first solo-show at Grosvenor Gallery runs from the 30 October - 20 November 2020. The exhibition features work from her ‘Tiger’ series, which she elaborates on in this episode. The show coincides with the East Asian element of Asian Art in London, which runs from 30 October – 6 November 2020.There will be a zoom conversation between Zimbiri and Dr Zehra Jumabhoy on Friday 30 October at 12pm (UK). Get in touch with the gallery by email, [email protected], if you’d like to receive details of how to access this, or to the view the recording. You can follow the artist on Instagram, @zimbiri91, as well as follow @asianartinlondon.We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please do subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen. We’ll be back with another episode very soon. 

Olivia Fraser is a contemporary British artist, who for the last 30 years has lived in India. Olivia has immersed herself in Indian culture, seeking not just to paint Indian scenes, but to fully understand and appreciate the myriad of ways of seeing in this vast country, creating a hybrid aesthetic of East and West. In 2005 she studied traditional miniature painting in Jaipur, which transformed the way she worked and looked at the world around her. In this episode we talk about her inspirations, as well as the lasting impression the work of her ancestor, James Bailley Fraser, has left on her.Olivia shares the range of sources she draws on in her work, and also ‘decodes’ one of her paintings for us, helping to reveal its secrets.In 2019 Harper Collins published a book on her work, titled ‘The Journey Within’. This features nearly all the works painted by Olivia in the last thirty years. Copies of this are available from the gallery.You can follow Olivia on Instagram @oliviafraserart. You can see some of the works mentioned in this episode, as well as the references mentioned by Olivia on our podcast and gallery Instagram pages @alifeinart and @grosvenorgallery. Olivia’s work can also be seen on our website www.grosvenorgallery.com. Olivia teaches miniature painting workshops in Jaipur once a year. Details of those classes are available on her website www.oliviafraser.com An exhibition of Olivia’s paintings will take place at Grosvenor Gallery at the beginning of August 2020. Please check our website, or email [email protected] to receive details.We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please do subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you listen. We’ll be back with another episode very soon. 

In this episode we speak to the internationally renowned artist Faiza Butt. We discuss the influences behind her stunningly detailed works, as well as issues that have been thrown up by the Coronavirus crisis. We talk about her ceramic work, a medium Faiza has a strong affiliation with, as well as the techniques used in her paintings, and how her experiences at the Slade School of Art changed her practice. We also discuss how life in London and the experiences of her children bleed into her work.New paintings by Faiza are on display at Grosvenor Gallery from 11-26 June 2020, as part of the show ‘Form & Figure: Bodies of Art’, curated by Dr Zehra Jumabhoy, (in association with Canvas Gallery). The exhibition features the work of three figurative artists; Faiza Butt, Ali Kazim and Salman Toor. Their paintings explore the human form; probing ideas of the body, desire, masculinity and representations of alterity. Faiza also decodes the visuals used in her new works, which are partly based on childhood memories of bucolic gardens and fruit farms in Pakistan.Follow @faizaaugust7 on Instagram, and see images of the work in the exhibition ‘Form & Figure’ at grosvenorgallery.com or @grosvenorgallery on Instagram. Older work by Faiza will be posted on @alifeinart. Faiza’s 2010 show ‘Pehlwan’, which is talked about in the episode is available on the Grosvenor Gallery website under 'past exhibitions'.If you’ve enjoyed this episode please leave your feedback, and please share with those you think may be interested. Thank you for listening, we’ll be back with another episode soon.

British painter Elisabeth Deane’s love of Indian miniature painting was born from a trip to Shantiniketan in West Bengal in 2011. Inspired by the work of polymath Rabindranath Tagore, she went on to study under Rajasthani masters, and later at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. Her work is a mix of rigid geometry and flowing figurative work, drawing from sources as varied as Persian and Indian miniatures and folklore to Islamic geometry. Her first solo-show, 'Rhythmic Measures', was held at Grosvenor Gallery in December 2019.

Wardha Shabbir is a visual artist based in Lahore, Pakistan. A graduate of the National College of Art in Lahore, Wardha employs traditional miniature painting techniques, producing paintings and sculpture in a style she describes as 'Organic Geometry'. In 2018 she was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize, and in October 2019 we held her first UK solo-show at the gallery in London.