Swapnaa Tamhane works to destabilize and untether colonial constructs as an artist, curator, and writer. Her process focuses on the presence of her hand in making paper and the treatment of surfaces. She works with drawing, textiles, handmade paper, text, and sculpture. She also works in collaboration with artisan-designers in Kutch, Gujarat, India, working with block printing and embroidery.
She studied at the University of Manchester (MA Contemporary Art, Distinction) in 2001 where she wrote about Gayatri Spivak's theory of the subaltern in the work of Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani, and Rummana Hussain, looking at the rise of the Hindu right-wing and communalism in India following the events at the Babri Masjid, Ayodhya, in 1993.
Tamhane has been a Research Fellow with Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (2009), and an International Fellow with Kulturstiftung des Bundes (2013). She has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and Kunststiftung NRW.
She has exhibited her work at A Space Gallery, Toronto; Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal; Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa; and articule, Montreal.
Tamhane and Delhi-based designer Rashmi Varma curated and wrote SĀR: The Essence of Indian Design, published by Phaidon Press (2016).
EDUCATION
MFA Fibres & Material Practices, Studio Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Candidate
MA Contemporary Art, Distinction, The University of Manchester, 2001
BA Art History, High Honours, Carleton University, Ottawa, 1999
RESIDENCIES
2018 Jorisch Family Artist Residency, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria
2015 What About Art?, Mumbai, India
2013 Space 118, Mumbai, India
2010 March Meeting, Sharjah, UAE
2009 KHOJ @ 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore, India
1999 School of Visual Arts, Summer Residency, New York, US
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
In Reference To, articule, Montreal
2019
Form, Neutor Passage, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria, curated by Tina Teufel and Antonia Lotz
2017
Portable Stories, an August Fröhls Presentation, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, curated by Rea McNamara
2014
Drawing Tools, an August Fröhls Presentation, Mönchengladbach
2013
The Institute of Knots, Cosmos Records West, Toronto
2012
DUMB BUNNY, offspace, Ossington Avenue, Toronto
How to Draw a Drawing, an August Fröhls Presentation, SummerWorks Performance Festival, curated by Michael Rubenfeld
We Don’t Know What this Conversation is Going to Make, an August Fröhls Presentation, Interaccess Electronic and Media Arts Centre, Toronto
Three, an August Fröhls Presentation, Townhouse, Toronto
The Institute of Knots, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Nuit Blanche, Toronto
2009
House of Cards, KHOJ @ 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
Ideas Travel Faster Than Light, Mecklenburgh Square Garden Project, London, curated by Jasone Miranda-Bilbao and Clair Joy
2019
From Glissant, Unfixed and Unbounded, Art Gallery of Ontario, curated by Catherine Sicot (ELEGOA), Wanda Nanibush (AGO), and Pamela Edmonds (McMaster Museum)
IGNITION 15, curated by Michèle Thériault and Nicole Burisch, Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Montreal
2016
Protectives, curated by Vicky Moufawad-Paul, A Space Gallery, Toronto, with Basil AlZeri
2015
SETS, an August Fröhls Presentation, curated by Elise Foster Vander Elst and Mattheiu Foss, FOCUS Photography Festival Mumbai
2014
even my mum can make a book #5 and #4, curated by Kristina Kramer, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart and Apartment Project, Berlin
No Space for Feng Shui, curated by Katja Kottmann and Dino Steinhof, Alte Latin Schule, Viersen (with Katja Kottmann, Dino Steinhof, David Bernstein, and Vesko Gösel)
2012
Genius Loci, with Aman Sandhu, curated by Stuart Keeler, Art Gallery of Mississauga
2009
Contested Spaces – Incursions, curated by Heidi Fitchner, Gallery Seven, Delhi (with Riyas Komu, Tejal Shah & Varsha Nair, Asim Waqif, and Prayas Abhinav)
Before / After, Launch Projects, CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto
WRITING
The Limits of....Self-Orientalizing, Nothing Personal, 2021
SĀR: The Essence of Indian Design, Swapnaa Tamhane & Rashmi Varma, Phaidon Press, 2016
‘Posters and Public Space’, Journal of Asian Diasporic Visual Culture and the Americas, Brill, 2016
‘In Order to Join – the Political in a Historical Moment’, Exhibition Catalogue, February 2015
‘Rummana Hussain: Building Necessary Histories’, n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal, May 2014
‘The Performative Space: Tracing the roots of Performance-based practices in India’, C Magazine, 2011
‘Propositions in Performance’, Catalogue Essay, Khoj Publications, Delhi, 2010
CURATOR
2017
HERE: Locating Contemporary Canadian Art, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, group exhibition with Derya Akay, Dawit L. Petros, Brette Gabel, Nahed Mansour, Harkeerat Mangat, Nep Sidhu, Sharlene Bamboat, Jamelie Hassan, Babak Golkar, Khan Lee, Jaret Vadera, Sameer Farooq, Shaan Syed, Nadia Myre, Zadie Xa, and Elizabeth Zvonar, Osheen Harruthoonyan, and George Elliott Clarke, ex. cat.
2015
In Order to Join – Politisch in einem historischen Moment, co-curated with Susanne Titz
Max Mueller Bhavan / Goethe-Institute & CSMVS (former Prince of Wales Museum), Mumbai, 26 February to 19 April, 2015, ex. cat. Helen Chadwick (UK), Chohreh Feyzdjou (IR/FRA), Sheela Gowda (IN), Angela Grauerholz (CAN), Jamelie Hassan (CAN), Mona Hatoum (UK), Rummana Hussain (IN), Shelagh Keeley (CAN), Astrid Klein (GER), Ana Mendieta (US), Pushpamala N. (IN), Adrian Piper (GER), Lala Rukh (PAK), and Rosemarie Trockel (GER), Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, 8 December, 2013 to 16 March, 2014, ex. cat.
OBJECT MANIPULATING ECONOMY / ECONOMY MANIPULATING OBJECT, co-curated with Aman Sandhu, artists include Soya Arakawa (JP/GER), David Bernstein (US/NL), Jessica Gispert (US/GER), Elmar Hermann (GER), Harkeerat Mangat (CAN), Rajni Perera (CAN), Titre Provisoire (GER), Nep Sidhu (Black Constellation) (CAN), Kristina Stoyanova (BUL/GER), Arjan Stockhausen (GER), and Jaret Vadera (CAN), August Fröhls, Mönchengladbach, 29 January to 15 February, 2015
‘Fearless: The Hunterwali Story’ and ‘The World Before Her’, Filmwerkstatt, Düsseldorf
2013
Assistant Curator: TEXTILES: OPEN LETTER: Abstraktionen, Textilien, Kunst, curated by Rike Frank and Grant Watson, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, 23 June to 10 November, 2013
2012
Ali El-Darsa, Hart House & SAVAC, 26 April
2008
Play/Grounds: Scaling the Premises, Dean Baldwin, Susy Oliveira, Rashmi Varma, Gerald Grison, Queen West Art Crawl, Toronto
Foreground. Background.: Matt Calderwood (UK), Aron Hill (CAN), Peter Macdonald (UK), and Shaan Syed (CAN), Elementa Modern and Contemporary Art, Dubai
2007
Simon Starling: Cuttings; Fiona Banner: The Bastard Word; Francesco Vezzoli; Steven Shearer; Stephen Andrews; Auto Emotion, Assistant Curator, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto
2002
PRIVATE, Seema Rao (IN), Zeyad Dajani (UK), Anthony Gross (UK), David Gysek (USA), Aldgate Pump House, London
EXPERIENCE
Instructor, Drawing, Studio Arts
Concordia University, Montreal
2019, 2021
Producer, Contemporary Art Projects
Luminato Festival, Toronto
2015 to 2016
Curator / International Museum Fellowship, Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Städtisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach, Germany
2013 to 2015
School Hop Facilitator
Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto
2010 to 2012
Assistant Curator
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto
2007 to 2008
Editor
Phaidon Press, London
2002 to 2006
Assistant Director
Gallery 101 Artist-run Centre, Ottawa
1998 to 1999
LECTURES & SYMPOSIA
2020 Artist Talk, University of Baroda, Studio Arts
2019 IARTS Textiles of India Grant, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (with Indu Antony)
2017 ‘Understanding Indian Design Today and Tomorrow’, Panel, Rashmi Varma, Divya Thakur, Ajay Shah, Malika Verma, etc., CSMVS, Mumbai
2016 ‘What is Indian Design’, History of Design, York University
‘Indian Design: Past and Present’, moderator, panel with Emilia Terragni, Spandana Gopal (Tiipoi), Ajay Shah (ASDS), and
Max Fraser, TENT London, London Design Fair
2015 ‘Posters’, Home Ground: Canadian Perspectives, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto
‘Rummana Hussain & Performance’, Goethe-Institut, Mumbai
2014 ‘In Order to Join: Feminist Perspectives and Rummana Hussain’, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
2012 ‘Performance Art: Contemporary Indian Artists and Histories of Political Street Theatre’, University of Toronto, Toronto / Co-organizer of Symposia: The Shifting Plane of Performance, included Christof Migone, Antawan Byrd, Ambereen Siddiqui, Darren O’Donnell and the Torontonians, Vesna Krstich, Wanda Nanibush, Jimenza Ortuzar, Amish Morrell, Emelie Chhangur, Jess Dobkin, Jorge Lucero, Kim Simon, Stephanie Springgay, and Matthew Goulish, supported by SAVAC, OAC, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and SSHRC
2010 ‘Performance Exchange’, March Meeting, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah
FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
2021
Concept to Realization, Canada Council for the Arts
2020
Research & Creation, Canada Council for the Arts
2019
IARTS Textiles of India Grant, ROM
2018
Joseph-Armand Bombardier (SSHRC)
2015
Project Grants to Critics and Curators, Canada Council for the Arts
2014
Kunststiftung NRW (with Aman Sandhu)
2013
International Museum Fellowship, Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Germany
2012
Visual Arts Projects, Ontario Arts Council
2008
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Arts Fellowship
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
2011 Board Member, SAVAC, Toronto
2021 Board Member, SAVAC, Toronto