Jai Chuhan: Dancer brings together new and existing works by Indian born, British artist Jai Chuhan for her first solo exhibition in the South West.

Chuhan’s paintings, which often feature the female figure within room-like spaces, are defined by her distinctive handling of paint and colour, where images are often dismantled and rebuilt, seemingly sculpted and then re-sculpted out of the thick paint. Her approach to colour draws from the Indian Ragas, compositional structures in Indian classical music that evoke emotion or mood. Together, her gestural brush work and distinctive palette lend the female figures she paints an expressive, emotional resonance.

Jai Chuhan: Dancer explores the theme of dance in Chuhan’s painting in three ways. Throughout her career, Chuhan has collaborated with dancers who are often the sitters for and subjects of her painting, from traditional Indian dancers to pole dancers, she explores dance as a vehicle for self expression and creative autonomy.

Chuhan has described the act of painting itself as a kind of dance - both the physicality of the act of painting and the dance of the paint on the canvas. In Chuhan’s paintings, the gestural brush work, defined by layers of vibrant colour appears to dance on the canvas, the orchestration of marks and colours creating pictorial spaces and structures, and expressing feelings through colours and marks, the way music does. 

Finally, a group of self portraits examine her identity as an artist, feelings of alienation and belonging and what Chuhan has described as the complex dance of identity. These paintings merge personal history with the transcultural currents of our time, inspired by her position as an Indian-born British artist. 

Visitors can also explore a FREE drop-in drawing activity in the gallery. 

“Dance is a metaphor for our journey through life, where we choreograph our lives and sometimes things don't work out as planned or circumstances change. Postures, gestures and facial expressions of figures are a kind of dance through life, and in this way almost all my paintings that centre on the figure in spaces with an emphasis on movement, stillness and the flux in-between, are exploring a kind of dance.”

Jai Chuhan