Sutapa Biswas

Sutapa Biswas
Born	(1962-11-28) 28 November 1962 (age 61) Shantiniketan, India
Alma mater	University of Leeds, Slade School of Art, Royal College of Art

Sutapa Biswas (born 28 November 1962) is a

Sutapa Biswas's works often reflect on questions of gender and cultural and ethnic identity.[9] For instance, her film Birdsong captures the story of young Indian boy who longs to own a horse and is filmed against the backdrop of an English period home.^[10] Biswas is also keen to use humour and satire in her work.^[7] In her painting 'The Last Mango in Paris' depicting two women talking and peeling mangos the caption below reads. M: 'If you were to be re-born, and had a choice what would you come back as?' B: 'If I were to be reborn again, I would be born an English dog, because in England they look after their dogs really well.' ^[7] She is keen to use her work as a platform for people to begin to address their own racism. Biswas was the 2008 Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Yale Centre for British Art, and is a European Photography Award nominee. She is currently a Reader Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.^[11]

Collections

Biswas' work is held in the following public collection:

• Tate, London^[12]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• 1987 Sutapa Biswas, Horizon Gallery, London^[13]
• 1992 Synapse: Sutapa Biswas, The Photographers' Gallery, London, (texts by Gilane Twaadros and David Chandler).^[13]
• 2021 'Lumen', Sutapa Biswas, BALTIC Contemporary^[14]
• 2021 'Lumen' Sutapa Biswas, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge^[15]

Group exhibitions

• 1985 The Thin Black Line, [Selected by Lubaina Himid], Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
• 1986 The Issue of Painting,
  Rochdale Art Gallery.^[13]
• 1986 Jagrati, Greenwich Citizens Gallery, London[13]
• 1986 Unrecorded Truths, The Elbow Room, London^[13]
• 1987 Creation For Liberation 4th Open Exhibition: Art by Black Artists,
  Brixton Village, London^[13]
• 1987 Critical Realism: Britain in the 1980’s through the Work of 28 Artists, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham[13]
• 1987 State Of The Art: Ideas And Images in The 1980s, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London^[13]
• 1987 The Image Employed: The Use of Narrative in Black Art^[13]
• 1988 Along the Lines of Resistance: an Exhibition of Contemporary Feminist Art, [Selected by Sutapa Biswas, Sarah Edge and Clare Slattery], Cooper Gallery, Barnsley ^[13]
• 1988 The Essential Black Art, Chisenhale Gallery, London^[13]
• 1988 Graven Images: Art, Religion and Politics, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston^[13]
• 1989 Fabled Territories: New Asian Photography in Britain, City Art Gallery, Leeds^[13]
• 1989 The Artist Abroad: An Exhibition of Work Influenced by International Travel, Usher Gallery, Lincoln^[13]
• 1989 Intimate Distance, The Photographers’ Gallery, London^[13]
• 1989 The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain, Hayward Gallery, London^[13]
• 1990 Disputed Identities, Camerawork, San Francisco^[13]
• 1992 Fine Material for a Dream...?: A Reappraisal of Orientalism: 19th & 20th Century Fine Art and Popular Culture Juxtaposed with Paintings, Video and Photography by Contemporary Artists, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston ^[13]
• 1992 The Circular Dance, Arnolfini, Bristol^[13]
• 1992 Who Do You Take Me For?, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane^[13]
• 1993 Beyond Destination: Film and Video Installations by South Asian Artists, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham^[13]
• 1993 Disrupted Borders, Arnolfini, Bristol^[13]
• 2023 Women in Revolt!: Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990, Tate Britain, London^[16]
• 2024 The Time of Our Lives, The Drawing Room, London^[17]

References