Today’s studio Sunday artist Bharti Kher. Based in India, Kher works in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, and large-scale installation. She is known for her incorporation of Indian cultural motifs such as the bindi into her artworks and figures.

Kher’s studio, as seen in the above photo, is jam-packed with figures, large and small – it almost looks like the artist is putting on some sort of bizarre stage show, with dolls or puppets. The presence of these doll-like figures is reminiscent of Annette Messenger’s studio.

Kher is known for working with the figures of both animals and humans, and there’s something mythological in many of these works, partly arising from combinations of animal and human features. The studio is filled with large statues, and small idols, paying homage to some mythology that exists in Kher’s imagination – and subsequently in the imagination of each viewer.

Aside from the sculptural figures, I also see a couple of large two-dimensional works that appear to be encased in glass, resting along the far wall in this image. The space itself seems to have a very high ceiling, with windows that are high enough to allow for plenty of natural light while still giving the artist four walls on which to install works.

Bharti Kher was born in London, U.K. in 1969, and currently lives and works in Delhi, India. She studied painting at Northumbria University in England, later branching out to incorporate other media into her practice.

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