Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1955 Punjab, India

Year of Migration to the UK: 1973

Other name/s: Jagjit Chuhan, J. Chuhan

Biography

Painter, curator and university lecturer, Jai Chuhan was born in Punjab, India in 1955. She immigrated to London, England in 1973 to attend the Slade School of Fine Art and graduated in 1977. During her studies at the Slade, she discovered the works of Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon, which all had a profound impact on her own practice. Leon Kossoff and Alberto Giacometti were also key reference points.

Chuhan's art practice often explores her dual identity as an Indian-born British artist and the female experience and gaze. Her paintings, often large in scale, present female forms with vivid colours and dynamic strokes, merging stillness with action. These distorted expressionist figures convey feelings of upheaval and longing. The paintings hint at personal and societal struggles concerning gaze, identity, and cultural nuances. Some artworks reference current events, such as migrants in the Mediterranean, while others highlight her own journey, blending diverse cultural influences, showcasing the complex interplay between self and society. ‘Her artwork has moved from more abstract pieces based on the natural world to self and family portraiture. She has commented that "in Indian art – apart from Tantric art – women are always secondary to male figures'"and her own work challenges this with a strong female presence,’ (Donnell, 2002, pp. 77-8). Rather than portraying her subjects with a heightened awareness of their inner worlds, she captures them with a rich tapestry of cross-cultural references in poses that twist through bold brushwork. Bodies emerge as arenas of conflict, encompassing power struggles, freedom, restraint, and varying degrees of clarity for both observer and observed. She often depicts anonymous city people alongside familiar faces, blending what she sees, recalls and captures in photographs.

Regarding her paintings, Chuhan stated: ‘I use vivid colour in expressionistic paintings that consider the female gaze in depictions of the body seemingly confined and isolated in a room-like space, an arena for exploring psychological tensions in symbioses of male and female, home and “unhome”. The images reflect transcultural aesthetic influences inspired by my position as an Indian-born British artist. I embrace the challenge of combining aesthetic influences from the Western painting tradition with the dance configurations of classical Indian sculpture, overriding cultural differences in paintings about the living body and the plurality of experiences, within contemporary cultural evolutions. My paintings of the human body explore the female gaze, race and gender, in contexts of migration, diaspora, hybridity and the “other”' (in response to BURU, 2023).

Between 1993 and 1994, Chuhan was included in Transition of Riches, a touring exhibition organised by Birmingham City Museum & Art Gallery to showcase contemporary works by South Asian artists (part of the wider South Asian Contemporary Arts Festival directed by Kenyan-born sculptor Juginder Lamba). In 1999, Chuhan featured in the two-person exhibition, an intimate mosaic, held at Liverpool's Senate House. Arising from her friendship with Laura Arison in south Manchester, the show was based on their shared experiences of being ‘working painters’, embedded in their respective family dynamics. Rather than seeing these circumstances as limiting, both artists cherished the complex challenges they faced. Their work juxtaposed fleeting moments with the familiar, blending European and Asian art traditions. The publication Jai Chuhan: Refuge (2022) highlighted Chuhan's evolving oeuvre, analysing her 2018 exhibitions: Refuge at Gallery Oldham, and Remodel: Painting Studio at HOME, in relation to her dual identity. Her 2023 exhibition Small Paintings, held at Qrystal Partners in London, presented images of individuals in dreamlike settings, exploring love, alienation, gender interactions and power through a multicultural, feminine lens. In the same year, her exhibition Jai Chuhan - Paris International, opened at the Galerie Champ Lacombe in Biarritz, France, showcasing paintings that mirrored her deep emotions, with a blend of melancholy and curiosity, while reflecting Chuhan's passion for her painterly practice.

In addition to her art practice, Chuhan is also a university lecturer and curator. As an art historian, she explores painting traditions without cynicism, while asserting her voice in the medium with an emphasis on empathy. At Liverpool John Moores University she was Reader in Eclecticism in Art and led the Centre for Art International Research (CAIR) and now holds the title of Professor of International Art. She co-organised and co-curatedLines of Desire, an exhibition that showcased the medium of drawing and toured globally in 1998, after initially showing at Liverpool Art School and the Oldham Art Gallery. Jai Chuhan lives and works in Manchester and London. Her works can be found in several UK public collections, including the Arts Council Collection; Cartwright Hall, Bradford; Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool; New Hall Women’s Art Collection, University of Cambridge; Oldham Art Gallery, Oldham; Tate Archive; Usher Gallery, Lincoln; and Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool.