“I want to create a language only with color and line, which will speak in their own voice.”
Sheila Makhijani
Did you look at that? 2020 | Oil on canvas | 48″ x 84″
Sheila Makhijani over the course of her career has steadfastly pursued her continuing interest in the vitality and spontaneity of the abstract form. On seeing Makhijani’s canvases, the first impact is of movement, forceful and definite. Rising vertically, diagonally, spreading, or converging they seem to expand beyond their frames. Planes of color jostle amongst themselves, merging and overlapping as if being directed by hidden energy fields under the canvas. Constructed with layers of paint, Makhijani creates depths with light filled planes alongside dense dark surfaces. Their presence is bold and full on, and unlike in her sparsely executed drawings until now.
"Makhijani invites us to consider the parallels between the constructed world and the imagined spaces of her drawings, blurring the lines between abstraction, reality, and its representation."
Catherine de Zegher
Tuk Tuk, 2020 | Dry pastel on paper | 8 1/4" x 11 3/4" (Detail)
On paper, Makhijani proceeds with playful precision abled brush strokes gently borrowing space for her lines to exist. Markings appear on floating planes as if the result of an overflowing river system revealing the possible depths within the structure. Imaginary and exacting these self-contained, self-governing worlds appear to unfold according to some unknown logic. The compositions appear as unified forms, singular if confoundingly complex: the course of a thought as if it was presented all at once. Her recent works with pastel on paper have departed from being created with floating and fine lines to those of dynamic overlapping planes of color, edge to edge.
“Energetic and sensual, they convey an impression of controlled chaos.”
ARTNEWS
“Her art is abstract, intense, rhythmic and full of energy, but with hardly any direct allusions to natural or man-made forms… for Makhijani, the act of painting is more subliminally driven.”
ELLA DATTA
“Formal elements, instead of being building blocks of representation, become magical toys to play with and through play they become all powerful in themselves. They are out to be seen in their physicality without metaphysical layering.”
Roobina Karode in “The Secret Life of Sheila Makhijani”
“Makhijani’s abstraction is rooted in the material world, particularly in the urban environment that she observes around her…Her diagonals and chevrons possess a sense of speed, heightening the chromatic thrust.”
ARTFORUM
Sheila Makhijani, born in 1962 in New Delhi, where she lives and works, stands distinctly apart in the art landscape in India to her commitment to an oeuvre in its singular pursuit of abstraction. She was awarded her Bachelor and Master of Fine Art degrees from College of Art, New Delhi in 1984 and 1988 respectively. In 1992-93 she traveled to Japan and gained her diploma from Kanazawa Bijutsu Kogei Daigaku / College of Art in Kanazawa Japan. For over four decades Makhijani has steadfastly remained engaged in exploring the limitless possibilities of painting.
Makhijani’s works have been exhibited and in collections worldwide including at the Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) at the Queensland Art Gallery, Australia; The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Australia; Arnhem Museum, Netherlands; Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Netherlands; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), India; The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi, India and the Kunstmuseum, Netherlands.
Flying High, 2018
Acrylic on wall
TG 4070
Ah-h Wait Not There, 2017
Gouache on paper
22 3/5" x 30"
TG 3982
Ah-h How About That, 2017
Gouache on paper
22 3/5" x 30"
TG 3981
Shipping out, 2016
Gouache on paper
10 3/5" x 13 3/4"
TG 4002
Shifted, 2016
Gouache on paper
10 3/5" x 13 3/4"
TG 4001
Exactly like that, 2009
Gouache on paper
9 1/2" x 12 1/2"
TG 2915
Nothing Really, 2009
Gouache on paper
9 1/2" x 12"
TG 2917
RUN RUN RUN If you can, 2009
Gouache on paper
20" x 28"
TG 2788
Oh Oh, 2009
Gouache on paper
9 1/2" x 12 1/2"
TG 1270
So Now Move It! 2009
Gouache, cotton thread on paper, plastic sheets
17 1/4" x 25 1/4"
TG 2125
Take a Leap, 2009
Gouache, cotton thread on paper, plastic sheets
12 1/2" x 25"
TG 2126
Don't Move Me! 2009
Gouache, cotton thread on paper, plastic sheets
12 1/4" x 16 1/4"
TG 2251
Have you seen Strawberry? 2005
Oil on canvas
48" x 60"
TG 1275
Look Who's Talking? 2005
Oil on canvas
60" x 70"
TG 1273
QHQ! COME HERE! 2005
Oil on canvas
48" x 60"
TG 1270
Whirly whirly whirly, 2003
Oil on canvas
72″ x 84″
TG 1488
NOT AT ALL ! 2002
Gouache on paper
5" x 7"
TG 1148
As far as I can stretch, 2000
Acrylic on tarpaulin & wooden thread
300″ x 72″
TG 2914
Not that way, 1996
Sumi ink & dry pastel on paper
82” x 8” (in 8 parts)
TG 2951
Now that is the smallest piece, believe me, 1996
Ink on paper
5" x 8"
TG 2891
All over the place, 1994
Glazed and unglazed ceramic
273" x 180" (Variable, installation in 63 parts)
TG 3976
All over the place, 1994
Untitled, 1993
Ink, paper and pastel on paper
6 1/2" x 9 1/2"
TG 2880
WHAP, 1992
Oil on paper
38 1/4" x 74 1/2"
TG 2874
Phew, 1992
Oil on paper
37 1/2" x 73 1/4"
TG 2875
