Mansha Chhatwal

Mansha Chhatwal (b.1974, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) received her Bachelor’s of Applied Arts at Sophia Polytechnic (1994).

Mansha’s group shows include Art Loft (2010) Brooklyn Art Gallery (2011); Bartered collections at Mumbai Art Room by Cona Projects (2015); The Winchester Gallery, UK (2015); Reading Room at Saffron Art Gallery, New York (2016); Gallery Espace by Blueprint12 (2019); Blueprint12 (2020); Platform at Blueprint12 (2021); Blueprint12 (2022). Additionally, she has been an artist-in-residence at Sarai Reader 09’; Devi Art Foundation (2013); Reading Room exhibition, Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014); TIFA, Pune (2017).

Mansha’s practice is built around books that have been censored over time. Her work engages with issues of power, identity, memory and loss told through stories of books, writers and libraries. Undertaking the rather forceful acts of blurring, masking, cutting, removing and remoulding iconic books, she moves beyond highlighting the outrage of censorship towards a need to establish channels of meaningful dialogue. With her research based practice, she brings various perspectives to the storytelling. Interactions between subject and material interest her in the way they reveal ever new facets and layers. She likes her work to be immersive, and often employs process art to get immersed in the making herself.

Mansha lives and works in Mumbai, Maharashtra India.