Nalini Malini

Nalini Malani (born 1946, in Karachi, undivided India) is a contemporary Indian artist. In her early career, she primarily worked in the realms of painting and drawing. Since the 1990s her work expanded to other forms of media like video, film and projected animation. Her works are characterised by the expansion of the pictorial surface into surrounding space culminating in a layered visual narrative that takes the form of ephemeral wall drawings, shadow play, installations, multi projection works and theatre. She adheres to the vision of the artist as a social activist. Her artworks are often politically motivated and focus on themes of displacement, conflict, transnational politics, critical examination of gender roles and the ramifications of globalisation and consumerism. Throughout the course of her artistic career, she has strived to give voice to the stories of those marginalised by history with a focus on human and universal aspects of conflict and the relationship between the exploiter and the exploited. Literature has been a recurrent source of inspiration and reference for Malani. Her work has been featured in several international museums including Stedelijk Museum and the MoMA Museum of Modern Art. She lives and works in Mumbai.