Allen Gallery is proud to present Nandini Chirimar’s exhibition Objects of Worship. This is Nandini’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Objects of Worship is about objects used in Indian worship traditions. In this exhibition artist Nandini Chirimar explores these objects purely as objects- what they are, their physical and aesthetic qualities, their significance, even their packaging. In another vein, she explores their presence in everyday life, and social and cultural traditions associated with them. While the artist focuses on objects used for worship, she also thinks about the objects of our worship, like Gods, idols and even human beings who are elevated to a God-like status. Nandini further explores the social and cultural context of these sacred articles through a combination of art and poetry. Some of the work in this exhibit is inspired by a dialogue with Purvi Shah’s poems on the same subject, which will be displayed alongside the relevant art works.

The foundation of this show is meticulously detailed drawings on Japanese Kozo paper. From these drawings stem mixed media, sculptural and installation pieces using watercolor, gold leaf, woodblock printing, collage, household items and also actual ‘worship objects’. Some photographs will also be displayed. Nandini’s current work is a visual journal of her life drawn from her daily practical, emotional and visual experiences. She is interested in things of daily use, houses, cities, her culture and her different roles as an Indian woman/mother living in America. She uses her experiences with these to reflect our broader culture in her work.

Nandini Chirimar grew up in Jaipur, India. She came to the USA in 1987 for further studies, and did a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Cornell University (1990), a summer residency at the Skowhegan School of Art (1991), and an MFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute, College of Art (1993). Additionally, she studied viscosity printing from master printmaker Arun Bose, and spent four years in Japan learning woodblock printing from Taika Kinoshita, exhibiting her work and teaching art. She moved back to New York City in 2004, where she lives now with her husband and two daughters.