San Gimignano
Beijing
Les Moulins
Habana
Roma
Sao Paulo
Paris
Nikhil Chopra’s artistic practice interweaves live art, drawing, photography, sculpture and installations. His performances, in large part improvised, dwell on identity and its construction, autobiography and authorship, the pose and self-portraiture. His work reflects on the process of transformation and the part played by the duration of performance. Nikhil combines everyday life, momory and collective history; daily acts such as eating, resting, washing and dressing, but also drawing and making clothes, become the process of making an artwork, becoming an essential part of the show.
Nikhil’s performances on the international art and theater scene began in 2008, when the artist was invited to contribute to Time Crevasse (Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama), kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, Making Worlds (53rd Venice Biennale), Performa (New Museum New York) and Marina Abramovic Presents (Manchester International Festival, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester). After his one year research fellowship at Interweaving Perfomance Cultures, Frei Unversität Berlin in 2011, his work took him back to the Whitworth Art Gallery to make a solo project for the 2013 Manchester International Festival where he received critical acclaim for his performance “Coal on Cotton”. Between 2014 and 2017 he performed at the Kochi Muziris Biennale, Bienal de la Habana, the 12th Sharjah Biennial and documenta 14. In 2019 he presented a nine days long solo performance titled “Lands, Waters and Skies” for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Nikhil Chopra was born in Kolkata in 1974, and lives in Goa. After studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayaji Rao University in Baroda, India, the artist continued his studies in the United States in 2003 to return to India in 2005 with a Masters from Ohio State University.
2023
FIRE - solo show, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Paris, FR
2022
DANCING WITH MYSELF, 6-hours performance, Asia Now, Paris, FR
2021
REMEMBERING BEING THERE, GALLERIA CONTINUA / San Gimignano, IT
2019
LANDS, WATERS, AND SKIES, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US
DRAWING A LINE THROUGH LANDSCAPE, GALLERIA CONTINUA / San Gimignano, IT
2017
DRAWING A LINE THROUGH LANDSCAPE dOCUMENTA 14, Athens - Kassel
Blackening VI: Engine No. 3157, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, UK
2016
DRUMSOLO AT THE MILL Galleria Continua / Les Moulins, France
FLOATING CITIES & LOADED DICE 3 hour performance with Uriel Barthélémi, Gare du Nord, Paris
2015
USE LIKE WATER 9 days performance, 12th Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah, UAE
LA PERLA NEGRA: Plaza de Armas 60 hours performance, Havana Biennale, Havana, Cuba
2014
LA PERLE NOIRE KOCHI BIENNALE performance Level One, gb agency, Paris
2013
BLACKENING V Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi
COAL ON COTTON Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester International Festival, Manchester
2012
INSIDE OUT Galleria Continua / San Gimignano, Italy
BLACKENING IV: BAY 19 Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia
2010
YOG RAJ CHITRAKAR: MEMORY DRAWING X Chatterjee and Lal Gallery, Colaba, Mumbai and Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
2009
YOG RAJ CHITRAKAR: MEMORY DRAWING IX New Museum, New York
2007
YOG RAJ CHITRAKAR: MEMORY DRAWING II Chattterjee and Lal Gallery, Colaba, Mumbai
2005
SIR RAJA III The Fourth Floor, Kitab Mahal, Fort, Mumbai
2003
SIR RAJA II Kinnear Warehouse, Columbus, Ohio
2023
Indigo Waves and Other Stories. Re-Navigating the Afrasian Sea and Notions of Diaspora, Gropius-Bau, Berlin, DE
2022
HAZE - Contemporary Art From South Asia, Fondazione Elpis, Milan, IT
A Century of The Artist's Studio: 1920-2020, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
2019
SOFT POWER, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), USA
Homelands: Art from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, Kettle's yard, University of Cambridge, UK
2018
Sensorium, Goa, IN
D/CODE, Mumbai, IN
Fire Water, 2018, Yinchuan Biennale, CH
2017
Bhairav, New North and South, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2016
The Black Pearl: The City From the River, Alchemy, Southbank Centre, London, UK
2015
Follia Continua! 25 years of GALLERIA CONTINUA CENTQUATRE, Paris, France
Use Like Water, Sharjah Biennial 12, Sharjah, UAE
La Perla Negra: Plaza Di Armas, La Bienal de Habana, Havana, CU
2014
DHAKA ART SUMMIT Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka
2013
REBIRTH OF DETAIL Sunaparanta Center for the Arts, Goa
PERFORMANCE NOW The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow
SHAKTI Meadow Arts and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton
2012
DECIMO PARALLELO NORD: FOTOGRAFIA CONTEMPORANEA DA INDIA E SUDAMERICA Fondazione Fotografia Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena
INSIDE OUT: AS THE STARS VIEWED THE PALACE Finding Time, Columbus Public Art 2012, Columbus, Ohio
2011
H BOX Art Sonje, Seoul; Today Art Museum, Beijing; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
IN INDIA AND FAR BEYOND: KHOJ INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS’ ASSOICIATION Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen IFA Gallery, Stuttgart and Berlin
GENERATION IN TRANSITION: NEW ART FROM INDIA Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
LIBERALIS Kunst + Projecte Sindelfingen, Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Stuutgart
BEYOND THE SELF National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
PARIS DELHI BOMBAY Centre Pompidou, Paris
2010
PRODUCTION SITE: THE ARTIST’S STUDIO INSIDE-OUT Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
THE LAND BETWEEN US: POWER, PLACE AND DISLOCATION Whitworth Gallery, Manchester
2009
MARINA ABRAMOVIC PRESENTS Manchester International Festival, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester
MAKING WORLDS 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice
KUNSTENFESTIVALDESARTS 09 Brussels
THE SELF AND THE OTHER. PORTRAITURE IN CONTEMPORARY INDIAN PHOTOGRAPHY Espai 2 - Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona
INDIAN HIGHWAY Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo
2008
INDIAN HIGHWAY Serpentine Gallery, London
CHALO INDIA! Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
TIME CREVASSE 2008 Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama
EVERYWHERE IS WAR Bodhi Art, Mumbai
EMERGING DISCOURSES II Bodhi Art, New York, New York
IN NEW YORK CITY Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai presents at Thomas Erben, New York, New York
KHOJ LIVE 08, INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi
2007
POSING, ABRONS ART CENTER Henry Street Settlement, New York, New York
HOUSE OF MIRRORS Grosvenor Vadhera Gallery, London
BEINGS AND DOINGS, BRITISH COUNCIL Queen’s Gallery, British Council, New Delhi
2006
ASIAN CONTEMPORARY ART WEEK, ASIA SOCIETY, NEW YORK Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York
2005
MAURIZIO COULDN'T BE HERE: THE TASTE OF OTHERS Apexart, 291 Church Street, New York, New York
2004
CONTEMPORANEITY, INTERNATIONAL VIDEO ART IN KYRGYZSTAN G. Aitiev Kyrgyz National Museum of Art, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
2022
ART EXPLORA, Paris, FR
2012
FELLOWSHIP International Research Center “Interweaving Performance Cultures”, Freie Universität, Berlin
2011
FELLOWSHIP International Research Center “Interweaving Performance Cultures”, Freie Universität, Berlin
2010
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Centre Intermondes, La Rochelle
2009
RESIDENCY AND REFLECTION Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels
2007
INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART RESIDENCY, KHOJ Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi
KHOJ KASHEER, SRINAGAR, KASHMIR Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi
