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Born in Bangalore in 1958, Rekha Rodwittiya completed her graduation from The Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda in 1981. She then received the Inlaks scholarship for her M.A. in Painting from Royal College of Art, London in 1984. In 1988-89 she was invited as guest artist to the Konsthogskolan, Stockholm and was also invited to deliver series of lectures on Indian Art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts Grenoble and Castello de Rivoli, Torino in 1991. She did a short stint at the Fullam Institute on Film and Video, and was conferred the Staff Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation Asian Cultural Council to work in the U.S. in 1990.
Rodwittiya has always been concerned with the representation of the female figure in her quest to find the vocabulary to represent women without objectifying them, without allowing the viewer to play the role of voyeur. Rodwittiya represents large clothed Gauginesque women as the archetypal figure in their daily work rituals, dwarfing their tools and objects that surround them, in a celebration of the female protagonist.
Rekha Rodwittiya has represented India in several prestigious art shows internationally apart from a series of workshops and lectures on Indian art. She has held solo exhibitions at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai, Art Heritage, New Delhi, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai, Seagull Foundation for Arts, Kolkata, the Gallery 678, New York. She has also participated in the 2nd Biennale, Havana and in "Six Young Contemporaries" in Geneva.
Among her other select exhibitions are 'Contemporary Indian Art from the Herwitz Collection', Grey Art Gallery, New York (1985), VI International Triennale, New Delhi (1986), 'Dialogues of Peace', 50th Anniversary of U.N. Worked on site on a painted room 'Songs from the Blood of the Weary' (1995), 'Evocations', solo exhibition at Ludovica Barberri Gallery, Venice (1998), and a Project in Brazil with Labrotoria, curated by Phillipe Mullion (1998). She was one of the participating artists at a major exhibition of Indian contemporary art in Oslo's Henie-Onstad Art Centre as part of the celebrations of 50 years of Indo-Norwegian bilateral relations.
Her works titled -Bye Bye Baby- exhibited at the Sakshi Art Gallery in March 2003 refer to "loss of innocence'. This particular series is a reflection of the lost innocence and sensitivity that has led to the growing schism in the society. The body of work of about 15 paintings portrays the breaking down of the idealism in the political environment. In a tongue and cheek sort of way, or at the obvious levels, the series reflects the anarchical situation around us.
The paintings, in bright and bold colors, continue to have Rodwittiya's language in the form of feminine figures and decorative but, symbolic tapestry. Giving an insight into her usage of bright and bold colors, she states that the colors bring about an optical association that further forges you into an association with my work." Her basic philosophy is to visualize beauty even in the most trivial of things, and the same holds true for art; she believes you need to cultivate that fundamental appreciation within you.
Her works are in various private and public collections in India, U.K., U.S.A., Brazil, Italy, West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Rekha Rodwittiya currently lives and works in Baroda.
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