Artists > Amshu Chukki
Amshu Chukki is a multidisciplinary artist based in Bengaluru, India, whose work spans experimental film, drawing, sculpture, and text. His practice explores the politics of landscape, cinematic excess, cyclical histories, and the narrativization of memory. Chukki’s process is rooted in site-specific inquiries, often beginning with direct engagement with cities, sites, and landscapes. Collaboration with local communities is central to his work, as he navigates subaltern imaginations, regional histories, literature, and politics. Taking from the idea of the landscape as a protagonist that culls from the ‘landscape theory’ introduced by the Japanese filmmaker Masao Adachi, where the visible landscape is an expression of the dominant political power relations, Chukki, in his work, positions the city and landscape as protagonists, challenging modes of experimental film.
Incorporating archival materials, oral histories, and site-specific artifacts, he constructs narratives that move fluidly between the tangible and the imagined, transforming landscapes into repositories of layered memory and speculative futures. His practice examines how landscapes operate as both mise en scène and agents of history, engaging with questions of labor, materiality, ecological entanglement, and fantasy. Through a methodology that foregrounds a collaborative staging, his works often feature narrator-interlocutors—ranging from human voices to inanimate fragments—who map and decipher space, allowing stories to unfold organically from within the site’s political and cultural textures.
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Profile
b. 1991
Education:
2014 MVA (Painting), Maharaja Sayajirao University Baroda, Vadodara
2012 BVA (Painting), Maharaja Sayajirao University Baroda, Vadodara
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2022 Liquid Petrology, Stalla Madulain, Madulain, Switzerland
2022 Different Danny and Other Stories, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, IN
2022 Different Danny and Other Stories, 1 Shanthiroad,Bengaluru, IN
2018 The Tour, 1 Shanthiroad, Bengaluru, IN
2017 The Tour, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, IN
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2021 From Cinema, AI(R)C Artists in Revolution Collective, L.A, U.S.A.
2020 Outside, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, IN
2019 The Arthur Bunder Press, Colaba: A printmaking workshop at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, IN
2019 Experiment with Truth, Curated by Vibha Galhotha for the SAHMAT annual exhibition
2019 Chennai Photo Biennale, curated by Pushpamala N., Chennai, IN
2018 Imitating Atmosphere, Sculpture Park Jaipur, curated by Shreyas Karle, IN
2018 Invisible Light-Jagte Raho, curated by Gitanjali Dang and Khanabadosh for the Firstpost
2018 To, J. Alfred Prufrock, curated by Indu Antony as part of Home Sweet Home, Bengaluru, IN
2018 Screening of ‘The Mountain, Les Invisibles’ by SAVAC at Open Doors, Toronto, Canada
2018 ‘TURN OF THE TIDE’ 20/20 Artists for KHOJ, – KHOJ New Delhi, IN
2018 Beacon – Flare, Curated by Rebecca Halliwell Sutton – Caustic Coastal, Salford, Manchester, England
2017 Asia Film Focus 2017: Time Machine, Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore
2017 ‘Video Vismaya’ curated by Suresh Jayaram part of the Double Road exchange program – Maximillians Forum, Munich
2016 Open Studio, What About Art?, Mumbai, IN
2015 Home, Chatterjee and Lal, Mumbai, IN
2015 Videos by Amshu Chukki and Chinmoyi Patel – curated exhibition by Dominic Nurre, Helper Projects, Brooklyn, New York
2014 ‘India: Maximum City’, curated by Birgid Uccia at Chesa Planta, Zuoz, St.Moritz Art Masters, St.Moritz, Switzerland
2014 Art for Young Collectors III, Galerie Mirchandani, Mumbai, IN
2013 Indian Vocabulary, ZOCA, The Gallery Amdavad Ni Gufa, Ahmedabad, IN
Residencies:
2022 St. Moritz Art Academy, St. Moritz, Switzerland
2018 Stiftung Kunstdepot, Göschenen, Switzerland
2015 The Darling Foundry, India – Québec Residency
2015 Coriolis Effect: Currents across India and Africa, KHOJ, New Delhi,IN
2015 KHOJ international workshop, Pune,IN
2014 St. Moritz Art Masters Residency Programme, St.Moritz, Switzerland, 2014
2014 KHOJ Peers
Awards and Grants:
2021 Space Studio Artist’s Grant
2016 Recipient, Forbes 30 under 30 2016 for Visual Arts – India
2014 Inlaks Fine Arts Award
2012 Kalpana Reddy Memorial Award in Photography for the final year Bachelors of Visual Arts’ display
2011 Nasreen Mohammadi award for the best display.
2010 Gujarat state Lalit Kala award for painting in the “fine art students” category in 50th state art exhibition.
