TEJA GAVANKAR India, b. 1986
Teja Gavankar (b.1986, Mumbai) received her BFA from L.S. Raheja School of Art, Mumbai in 2006 and an MFA in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda in 2014. Teja Gavankar's artistic practice is firmly rooted in drawing and site-specific sculpture, with a proclivity towards spaces, objects and materials in her immediate surroundings, which serve as compelling mediums to translate her life experiences. Her artworks seek to inspire subconscious connections in physical spaces, by subverting mundane spaces with subtle distortions and alterations that add unexpected dimensions. Teja chronicles the lessons and implications of subtle changes in her everyday life in an organic, minimalistic, and surprising language.
Teja had her first international solo show, Other's Spaces at Optica Center for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada in 2017. She has been part of residencies at Khoj International Artist Association (New Delhi), What About Art (Mumbai), Space Studio (Vadodara), Verticale Artist Center (Laval, Canada) and Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation supported International (India-Quebec) Residency at the Darling Foundry (Montreal, Canada).
She has been part of several group shows such as In The Light Of, curated by Gitanjali Dang, Gallery Ark, Vadodara, 2021; Hindsight 20/20, Gallery Ark, Vadodara, 2020; When is Space, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, 2018; Navigation is Offline, Bhubaneswar Art Trail, Odisha, 2018; Young Subcontinent, Serendipity Arts Festival, 2016. Teja's work was also featured as a part of Case Design's presentation at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018.
Teja is a recipient of Space 118 Contemporary Residences Artists Award
(2020) and Nasreen Mohamedi Award, MSU Baroda (2014). She has been teaching at the Academy of Architecture, Mumbai and is currently represented by Gallery Ark, Vadodara.
The artist lives and works in Mumbai.