Born in Milwaukee Wisconsin for over the past decade Waswo X Waswo has made Udaipur in Rajasthan his home. His complex relationship with India and India’s equally complicated response to him, is expressed through two distinct bodies of work, studio photography and miniature painting. Hand tinted photographs from elegant portraits of people in his neighborhood and “vanishing” trades and occupations as well as elaborate tableaus with painted backdrops portray the real and the mythological India and much typically that lies between.

Working in the true sense of the Indian Karkhana or workshop, Waswo collaborates with a team of assistants. Rajesh Soni extends his grandfathers art of hand-tinted photographs to the digital age, and with subtlety, empathy, irony and humor, miniaturist Rakesh Vijay skillyfully conveys Waswo’s concepts and sketches, imbuing past traditions with personal relevance.

Waswo X Waswo has been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions and is represented in India by Gallery Espace, New Delhi and Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai. Solo exhibitions have included Confessions of an Evil Orientalist at Gallery Espace in New Delhi. Tinted by Tradition, Indigo Blue Art, Singapore, and City Palace Museum, Udaipur, India, May be removed at will, Allience Francaise, New Delhi, New Myths, Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai. A Studio in Rajasthan, traveled to Coromandel Art Gallery, Pondicherry, Galleria Joyce, Genoa, Italy, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi and Kashi Art Gallery, Cochin. Group exhibitions include, Love, Mori Art Museum, Japan, Poseurs, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Intimately, H Gallery, Bangkok and, Staging Selves: Power, Performativity and Portraiture at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. Among Waswo’s recent publications are Men of Rajasthan published in 2011 by Serindia Contemporary.

Waswo X Waswo’s index is still being compiled, check back again shortly.