Born: 1951 Ladysmith, Union of South Africa (now South Africa)
Year of Migration to the UK: 1981
Other name/s: Lallitha Jawah Irilal, Lalitha Jawahirilal
Biography
Artist, Lallitha Jawahirilal was born to Indian parents in Ladysmith, Union of South Africa (now South Africa) in 1951. Born into an apartheid state which ‘denigrated the work of non-European artists’, Jawahirilal spent many years ‘dabbling in many things that were art linked but found that I just wasn’t getting any joy out of them’. Her family were forced to leave their home because the area was declared white, causing her to sacrifice her home life and to leave South Africa in ‘self-exile’. She initially moved to Israel, living in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, before settling in London, England in 1981 to begin her studies in Fine Art (CV, Art on our Mind; Oliphant, 1989). She subsequently gained a first-class BA Hons in Fine Art from Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (1984–87), funded by the Africa Educational Trust, and an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art (1987–89). Figurative art was her focus, though this gradually turned to form, texture and colour, informed by South African artists such as Dumile Feni, Louis Maqhubela and Pitika Ntuli, all living in exile in London at that point (Oliphant, 1989).
During her time in London, Jawahirilal ‘remained tormented by the continuing injustices of her homeland’, becoming an active member of the South African exile community and coordinating a number of artistic and philanthropic programmes related to the liberation struggle against the apartheid regime (Curating Culture, 2018). In 1984, she was a founding member of both the Pan-African Refugee Housing Co-Operative and the Refugee Woman’s Art Collection in London. She spent many weekends volunteering at the Kaligor Project in London’s East End, providing art classes to children from the Bengali community, and ‘other spare moments were sacrificed helping the Thusa Project in Brixton, which supported exiled South African artists’ (CV, Art on our Mind). Alongside her studies and philanthropic work, Jawahirilal exhibited widely in London, her work dealing ‘with space as a deeply embedded construct in one’s psyche during exile’. For instance, her series Oh South Africa, begun in the early 1980s, exists as a reflection of ‘her longing for her home during her time away in London’ (Art on our Mind). Jawahirilal was involved in significant group exhibitions in London, including Artists Against Apartheid at Royal Festival Hall (1985), Mirror Reflecting Darkly: Black Women’s Art at Brixton Art Collective (1985) and showed at the art fair, Art London ‘89 at Olympia (1989). She held solo exhibitions at 198 Gallery, Brixton (1990), New Academy Gallery (1994, 1996) and Curwen Gallery (1999). She was awarded a residency by Delfina Studios Trust in London in 1990, where she exhibited in their Annual Group Show the same year; she also won the Discerning Eye Award in 1991 and received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award in 1992.
After completing her formal training, Jawahirilal yearned for a ‘fresh source of artistic inspiration’, visiting India in 1990 where she saw her spiritual Guru, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, which was followed by a period in Spain for an art residency (CV, Art on our Mind; BURU correspondence). Having ‘longed for home’ for some time, Jawahirilal returned to South Africa in 1994 when apartheid ended, following a dream from her Guru in which he said to ‘serve South Africa for six years’ (BURU correspondence). That year she accepted a Fine Art Lectureship at the University of Durban-Westville, a position she held until the Art Department was shut down in 2000. Unable to find full time employment, she lectured briefly in Australia at Monash University (2001), followed by residencies in Cape Town (Curating Culture, 2018). She met John Samuels, former CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, who together with artist David Koloane purchased some of her artworks (BURU correspondence).
Lallitha Jawahirilal lives between Puttaparthi in India and South Africa, where she continues to exhibit and engage with arts projects (Khan, 2004; Art on our Mind, 2019; BURU correspondence). Her works are not currently held in any UK public collections; most are held in private collections in the UK, South Africa, Australia and Germany. However, papers related to her practice and life in the UK can be found in the Panchayat Collection in the Tate Library and Archive.
Related books
- Eddie Chambers, Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s (London: Bloomsbury, 2014)
- Thavamani Pillay, The Artistic Practices of Contemporary South African Indian Women Artists: How Race, Class and Gender Affect the Making of Visual Art (PhD thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 2014)
- Mario Pissarra, 'The Luggage is Still Labelled: But is it Going to the Right Destination?', Third Text, Vol. 18, Iss. 2, 2004, pp. 183-191
- S. Khan ed., 'Lallitha Jawahirilal', in The ID of South African Artists (Amsterdam: Stitching Art & Theatre, 2004), pp. 134-137
- Delfina Studio Trust, Annual Group Show at Delfina Studios (London: Delfina, 1990)
- Andries Walter Oliphant, 'The Art of Lallitha Jawahirilal', Staffrider, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1989, pp. 47-53
Related organisations
- Africa Educational Trust (award recipient)
- Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (student)
- Delfina Studio Trust, London (residency)
- Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries (award recipient)
- Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (award recipient)
- Jenako Community Arts Centre (member of management committee)
- Kaligor Project (volunteer)
- Nelson Mandela Foundation (artist contributor)
- Pan-African Refugee Housing Co-Operative (co-founder)
- Pollock-Krasner Foundation (award recipient)
- Refugee Women's Art Collective (founding member)
- Royal College of Art (volunteer)
- Thusa Project, Brixton (artist contributor)
Related web links
- Art on our Mind
- Art on our Mind, 'Creative Dialogue with South African Visual Artist Lalitha Jawahirilal', YouTube, 2019
- Curating Culture, 2018
- PolePolePress, 'The Luggage is Still Labelled', YouTube, 2017
Selected exhibitions
- Solo Exhibition, Curwen Gallery, London (1999)
- Solo Exhibitions, New Academy Gallery, London (1994, 1996)
- Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (1991)
- Solo Exhibition, 198 Gallery, Brixton, London (1990)
- Contemporary Art Society, Art Market, Smith Gallery, London (1990)
- Broadgate, London EC4, hosted by Whitechapel Art Gallery (1990)
- Annual Group Show, Delfina Studios, London (1990)
- Art London '89, Olympia, London (1989)
- Mirror Reflecting Darkly: Black Women's Art, Brixton Art Collective, London (1985)
- Artists Against Apartheid, Royal Festival Hall, London (1985)
