Amar Kanwar
For over two decades, New Delhi-based artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar has developed a distinctive body of lyrical films that move between documentary, travelogue and visual essay. This major solo exhibition unfolds as a site-specific installation, bringing together new and existing films to transform Serpentine North into a meditative visual and sonic environment.
Kanwar’s works often trace the legacies of decolonialisation and the partition of India and Pakistan. While rooted in the specific conditions of the Indian subcontinent, his practice grapples with broader themes of displacement, nationalism, violence, power, censorship, and memory – ultimately revealing what unites us rather than differentiates us regardless of context.
Artist Bio
Amar Kanwar’s (b. 1964, New Delhi, India) films and multi-media works explore the politics of power, violence and justice. Often drawing on zones of conflict, his multi-layered installations are characterised by a unique poetic approach to the personal, social and political. His work has been exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA (2022); Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, UAE (2020); NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, UAE (2020); Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (2019); Tate Modern, London, UK (2018); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, USA (2018); Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden (2017); Frac Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France (2017); Goethe Institut, Mumbai, India (2016); the Assam State Museum in collaboration with Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and North East Network, India (2015); the Art Institute of Chicago, USA (2014); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2013); the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2012); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2008); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK (2007); National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway (2006); and the Renaissance Society, Chicago, USA (2004).
Kanwar’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions and biennales including the Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2023); Kochi-Muziris Biennial, India (2022); and Documenta 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Kassel, Germany (2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017). He is the recipient of several awards including the IHME Helsinki Commission (2022); Prince Claus Award (2017); Creative Time’s Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change (2014); an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Maine College of Art, USA (2006); the Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art, Norway (2005); the MacArthur Fellowship in India (2000); the Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival, USA (1999); and the Golden Conch, Mumbai International Film Festival, India (1998).
