Chila Kumari Singh Burman

Chila Kumari Singh Burman is celebrated for her radical feminist practice which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. She works across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film. Born in Bootle, to Punjabi-Hindu parents, she attended Southport College of Art, Leeds Polytechnic and the Slade School of Fine Art. A key figure in the British Black Arts movement in the 1980s, Burman has since remained rooted in her understanding of the diverse nature of culture. Continually seeking to break stereotypes and emancipate the image of women, she often uses self-portraiture as a tool of empowerment and self-determination. Burman was selected as the fourth artist to complete the Tate Britain Winter Commission in 2020. The resulting hugely popular installation Remembering A Brave New World, addressed the colonial history of Tate Britain and its Eurocentric position. Adorning the gallery façade with references to Indian mythology, popular culture, female empowerment, political activism and colonial legacy. Exposing a need for better informed conversations and more effective strategies for tackling racism in the art world and wider society. More recently she has gone on to complete high profile light installation projects for Covent Garden’s historic market stall building, Liverpool Town Hall and Blackpool’s Grade II listed Grundy Art Gallery. She recently featured in Sky Arts documentary special Statues Redressed and BBC2 documentary Art That Made Us. And has completed a number of notable commission pieces for brands including Netflix’s White Tiger campaign and Byredo’s new fragrance Mumbai Noise. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and Honorary Fellowship from the University of Arts in London. Burman has exhibited widely with notable solo shows held at the Mansard Gallery, Heal’s London; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), Middlesbrough; Output Gallery, Liverpool; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool and Tate Britain, London. She was invited to feature as the special guest artist at The Other Art Fair 2022, and to show at the Royal Academy Summer Show 2021. More recently she co-curated upcoming Tate Modern Lates and was nominated as the Indian Art Fair’s London Ambassador. Her works are also held in the public collections of the Arts Council Collection, British Council, Science Museum, Tate Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum and Wellcome Trust in London.