Atul Dodiya was born in 1959, Mumbai, India. Trained in Mumbai, at Sir JJ School of Art, 1982 and École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1991-1992. Atul Dodiya became known in the Nineties for hyperrealist paintings depicting middle-class Indian life and for his watercolour series on Mahatma Gandhi. The paintings by Atul Dodiya are populated by diverse traditions in painting, the written words, images from the media and of saints, legends, national history, political events, traumata and autobiographical narratives. His allegorical paintings on canvas or metal roller shutters and watercolours may be aggressive or poetic. Atul Dodiya has had more than 29 solo shows in India and abroad, which includes a mid career retrospective at Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Tokyo in 2001, a solo show in Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid in 2002, Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati, US in 2013, a major survey show of his work held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 2013 and a solo show at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, 2014. Participated in the 1st Yokohoma Triennale, 51st Venice Biennale, Documenta 12, 7th Gwangju Biennale, 3rd Moscow Biennale, 7th Asia Pacific Triennial, Australia and Kochi Muziris Biennale, India. A major monograph on Atul Dodiya, published by Prestel Verlag, was released in January 2014.
Tyeb Mehta once warned Atul Dodiya against referencing Francis Picabia, who is but one reference on a long and abundant list that includes Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp, and surprisingly Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian—although Dodiya has never been an abstract painter. Dodiya also appropriates diverse forms and inspiration from daily life, such as…
