footprints

WOMEN'S PRINT SHOW
Footprints
Curated By Kavita Shah
21 - 31 July, 2006

Footprints, is an exhibition of prints by 30 women artists from India, Pakistan, UK, USA and Hong Kong. These artists have offered their one significant work to represent their contribution to printmaking as women. 28 of them have also given an edition of their print for the portfolio exchange between the participating artists.

Kavita Shah, the curator of the show, is an active printmaker herself. She runs Chhaap, a community printmaking studio in Baroda, Gujarat. Spanning many generations, geographical and political boundaries, these women printmakers are addressing the issues of working in the medium and together contemplating about the solutions and future prospects of the art and practice of printmaking.

The exhibition offers a perspective into printmaking by women done in the last 5 decades, and into the finer aspects of prints and the evolution of the language and medium. Acknowledging the interventions of new printing technologies, recognizing their potential and widespread acceptance, all 30 printmakers - eminent, contemporary and upcoming - are sharing their challenges and joys of printmaking with their contributions to this exhibition. The show opened in Baroda, and after Bombay will travel to Bangalore. Proceeds from any portfolio sales will go towards the Chhaap Studio.
'Chhaap: Baroda Printmaking Workshop' was established on a cooperative basis in 1999, to create and promote a wider appreciation for original prints and printmaking techniques. Kavita Shah has conducted many workshops and seminars on printmaking. She also prints editions for senior artists at Chhaap. Kavita undertook this project to highlight the joyous, mystic and arduous nature of printmaking process which, large number of women artists have called as synonymous to the feminine nature - loving, caring, emotionally binding and resilient.

The artists included in the exhibition are: Lalitha Lajmi, Naina Dalal, Zarina Hashmi, Jaki Parry, Anupam Sud, Meher Afroz, Shakuntala Kulkarni, Maggie Jennings, Sukla Sen Poddar, Kavita Nayar, Marina Tsesarskaya, Yung Sau-mui, Anita Das Chakraborty, B.Padma Reddy, Kavita Shah, Asma Menon, Paula Sengupta, Archana Hande, Jayati Mukharjee, Parthavi Patel, Tanujaa Rane Hambardikar, Meetali Singh, Stuti Vasavada, Sreejata Roy, Oli Ghosh, Moutushi Banerjee, Puja Puri, Champa Sharath Kajal Shah, Mekhala Bahl.