Vibha Galhotra (b. Chandigarh, India; lives and works in New Delhi) is a conceptual artist working in a variety of media, including sculpture, photography, printmaking, video, drawing and text. Her work is influenced by nature, climate change, and anthropogenic issues of our age. Her large-scale sculptures address the shifting topography of the world under the impact of globalisation and growth. Galhotra sees herself as being a part of the restructuring of culture, society and geography, both of New Delhi, and of the world at large, and she uses her work to redefine her own existence in contemporary society, both philosophically and structurally.
Offering an alternative to conventional approaches to environmental study and practice, Galhotra seeks to expand the discourse to include subjects like history, economics, political intervention and tradition, while factoring in the current state of environmental degradation. Her process-oriented practice is rooted in both research and intuition; her work dwells between the personal and public, reality and belief, and science and spirituality to explore the shifting landscape of society.
Galhotra’s practice is based on the underlying belief in Yat pinde tad Brahmande – which translates from Sanskrit as that which is in microcosm is in the macrocosm, or as the Upanishads say, One is in all / All is in one. What exists in the universe, exists in you and they are inseparable. The five fundamental elements which form the building blocks of the atmosphere exist in each of us; subsequently, the degradation of nature will inevitably imply the degradation of all living beings. As an observer of time, through her practice, she is trying to find a point of mitigation in this fast pace of utopias or imminent dystopias.
Galhotra was an Asian Cultural Council fellow 2017 in the US, pursuing continual research on belief and reality to intervene on the subject of Anthropocene. She studied art at Kala Bhavan Santiniketan, where she completed her Masters in 2001. A recent awardee of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residency in 2016, Galhotra has been honoured with numerous awards over the course of her artistic career including YFLO Woman Achiever of the Year Award in 2015; Inlaks Foundation Fine Arts Award in 2005-06; the National Scholarship from the Human Resource Department, Government of India in 2001-02; and the Artist Under 30 Award, Chandigarh State Lalit Kala Academy Award in 1998. In addition to her numerous solo exhibitions, Galhotra’s work is included in many public collections worldwide.