Arpita Singh’s richly textured figurative paintings are dense with layers of image and text and permeated by saturated color. Decorative motifs in her work reference traditional forms of Indian art, miniature painting, folk art, book illustration and textiles, such as the stitched surfaces of Kantha quilts from her native Bengal. Observation and memory serves as a bridge connecting observed and imagined worlds, as the everyday encounters the mythological.

Her subject-matter includes activities of her immediate family and neighbors, the labyrinth-like streets of various neighborhoods such as Nizzamuddhin in New Delhi where she as lives, as well as painful memories of national conflict; the partition of India, the Gujarat and Sikh riots and global incidents such as Gulf War or Guantanamo Bay. Through her interest in archeology and astrology, she travels to other places and times from the vantage point of lived experience, intuition, and a vivid imagination. The female body as vulnerable or resilient, subject to the effects of time, has always been a significant presence in her work.

Over her long and celebrated career Arpita Singh has been included in extensive national and international exhibitions and collections. Her solo exhibitions include Cobweb and Picture Postcard at Vadehra Gallery in New Delhi, Palette Gallery in Mumbai, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, Memory Jars, Bose Pacia in New York, CIMA Gallery, Kolkata, Foundation for Indian Artist, Amsterdam. Her work is represented by Vadhera Gallery,  vadehraart.com.

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