Janhavi Khemka (b. 1993)
Born in 1993 in Varanasi, India, Janhavi Khemka is an interdisciplinary artist who studied printmaking at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, graduating in 2017. She completed her Master of Fine Arts Studio Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA in 2023.
Khemka, with her congenially impaired hearing, looks at disability not as a disadvantage but as a lens through which one can see, understand and negotiate with the world in a different way. Each work is an expression of her unique ways of interacting with the world without acoustic sensation. Presently working from Chicago, USA, Khemka has been creating live performances that question the meaning of language and how we understand it.
Khemka has participated in many major exhibitions in India and internationally, including solo shows such as "Unit #1505", Comfort Station, 2023, Chicago; UnMute at SITE Sharp Gallery, 2022 Chicago, USA. She was a part of group shows including What We Inherit, University Art Gallery, 2023, Truman State University, MO, USA; Coalesce, CSI Project Space, 2023, 1912 North Damen, Chicago; Neighbors, 2023, Purple Window Gallery, At Mana Contemporary, Chicago; Open Water: Permeating Territories, 2023, Chicago; Where she comes from, NEIU Fine Arts Gallery, Chicago, USA; A photographic image as text Part I, Jolly Art Adda, Mumbai, India; Press Forward at Box 13 Art Space (Texas, 2021); Embodied Histories: Reconstructing the Present at Gallery SAIC (Chicago, 2021); Aroh at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2021); Print Exposition at Rashid Chowdhury Art Gallery (Chittagong, 2017); The Shape of Things at Ganges Art Gallery (Kolkata, 2017); and many more. In addition, her work has been featured in Macrocosm, the International Print Exchange Program (2018-21) exhibition, several international art festivals, and print biennales. She has been a part of several art residencies, workshops, conferences, and printmaking exchanges and has taught at several institutions in India and Internationally. She was one of the jurors for the VSA Emerging Young Artist Program, The Kennedy Center, NW Washington, US, in 2023.
Khemka is a recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the 63rd National Award 2023, Lalit Kala Academi, in printmaking; Chicago Sculpture International Fellowship, 2023, Chicago; Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation Award for Printmaking (2021, 2018) and the First Printmaking Prize Gate44 (Milan, 2019).
Her upcoming Exhibitions and Art fairs include, a Solo Exhibition, at Dyer Arts Center at RIT/NTID, Rochester, New York.
Her works are in several important collections, including the KNMA, New Delhi, India and the Alkazi Foundation, India.
Janhavi Khemka works between Santiniketan, Varanasi and Chicago.