Unit #1505

Work by Janhavi Khemka

On View April 1st - 30th, 2023

Opening Reception:
Saturday, April 1st, 4 - 7 PM

As a hearing-impaired person, I have found it difficult to express my innermost reflections through spoken language. At the age of 15, my mother passed away from cancer. She was my link to communicating with the outside world. Her technique created limits, barring me from learning sign language while emphasizing lip reading. I had to learn to negotiate the world around me on my own. Art has helped me search for meaning in more intimate acts—my hands, their relationship to the world, my sight, and my ability to touch.

As a cross-disciplinary artist, I create paper sculptures, prints, animation, and performances based on my life experiences. My practice is focused on finding ways to translate my perception. Therefore, most works are rooted in the personal, both mental and physical. Most recently, my practice has extended to environments-based installation and vibrational materials. I invite the viewer to experience my perception of the world, devoid of aural stimulation.

Born in 1993 in Varanasi, Janhavi Khemka is an interdisciplinary artist in India and Chicago. She attends the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in pursuit of a Master of fine arts degree in print media. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting and printmaking from the Faculty of Visual Art, Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India (2015) and a Master of Fine art in printmaking from Graphics Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan (2017). Her current artistic research has an intersection of traditional printmaking, animation, vibration material, and performance. She has exhibited her artwork in regional, national, and international galleries and institutions throughout the United States, India, Norway, Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Khemka has participated in national and international exhibitions, and artist residencies, given lectures, attended national printmaking conferences and taken the workshop. She has received a Graduate Award from Printmaking Today Magazine for the Winter Issues in December 2022. Most recently, she has been invited to attend several residencies including Kala’s Artist in Residence Program at Berkeley, CA, and Bodies of Work, at the University of Illinois Chicago at Chicago, IL.

Learn more about the artist
@janhavi_khemka
janhavikhemka.com