Bio 
Gunjan Kumar was born in Ludhiana, India, in 1980, and moved to the United States in 2011. She currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Gunjan is a materialist and works widely with various pigments and textiles from the around the world. She has spent many years traveling through India and other countries in South Asia observing age-old practices in textiles and indigenous arts.
Her works have been exhibited at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Donnelley Foundation, TEDx Chicago, Chicago Artist Coalition, South Institute in Chicago, National College of Arts, Lahore, Art Dubai, India Art Fair, among others. She is currently a resident at the Chicago Art Department and has formerly been a resident fellow at the Edward Albee Foundation, Montauk, NY. Gunjan’s works are in the collections of the Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi, Currell Collection, London, Edward Albee Foundation, New York, BML Munjal University, New Delhi, and other private collections.
Artist Statement | Legacies of Crossings
At its core, my work is about observing. Observing matter in its elemental form and in relation to self. My interests lie in how materials and processes tell a story of self rooted in place, serving as sensory portraits of the inhibited and the bygone. Materials used in the work such as organic and inorganic earth pigments, muslin, and raw hand woven cotton activate physical and non-physical connections with my immediate and constantly changing relationship with the world. Process in the works, is the message. Often a medium is selected, preferably in its elemental form. Next, it is intimately prepared and rendered. As the medium travels through the composition, it informs of its place and role through the relationships that it builds. Therefore, an unhurried sense of time is essential in the process. Influence of indigenous practices, particularly prehistoric cave paintings and related schools that I have been visiting for the past many years, play an important role in carving my process and ideology.
