Born in Burma of Indian descent and Swedish Nationality, Vinita is a global nomad. Vinita Karim, is an international artist currently based in the Philippines, whose work encompasses the range from painting to installation, and identifies her artistic persona in terms of her diasporic identity. Vinita presents her recent artworks on canvas, which primarily uses Abstraction as the vantage point for her exploration. Vinita uses various materials like oil and acrylic paint, gold leaf, and print patterns from kalamkari wooden blocks. This shows the smooth interconnection between her Indian heritage, and her upbringing and life in various cities across the world: Stockholm, Berne, Nuremberg, Khartoum, Kuwait, New Delhi, Islamabad, Dhaka, Cairo and now Manila. Her experiences in these various fascinating cultures have enriched and informed her artmaking with a unique blend of east and west, north and south, and traditional and modern, combining them into new and surprising possibilities. Her sensibility as an artist, informed through years of formal study, which has climaxed in her receiving a Masters degree in Fine Arts at the prestigious University of the Philippines, is also mediated by her identity as a citizen of the world. In her masteral thesis, titled Artmasala, Vinita explores the artistic possibilities opened through the installation of painted and stamped fabric 700 meters long, wound around the gallery, threaded into industrial spools, and interspersed with muslin bags filled with spices, that comment on her sense of cultural nomadism and hybridity as a multi-cultural being and homemaker. In addition, she has also done a series of mixed media works that meditate on her Indian heritage as well as hybrid sources, such as Filipino and Egyptian icons , carefully layered with her stamped kalamkari blocks and textured motifs that expand upon her project to distill the various cultural symbols of her life into a gestalt-like statement of her plural but well-summarized artistic concern: the merging of various cultures signify not chaos, but resilience and dynamism.On the other hand, her recent paintings are composed of transparent glazes of colors revealing the depth of layers in a combination of brilliant colors and a series of interesting solutions that emerge from her twenty years of artistic experience and ceaseless global voyaging. She has made her works dense through the layering of many motifs drawn from her exposure and life in various cultures, as well as her sensitivity to various artistic styles, such as abstraction, traditional and modernist figure painting. The unique combination of different harmonious elements from various painting traditions has also worked to enliven Vinitas paintings, giving her a unique position to muse on her role within the global village, and its vibrant interlinking of many nationalities and identities in a spirit of acceptance and the celebration of human achievement and cultural diversity.
Education:
2007 Master of Fine Arts, University of Philippines, Philippines 1985 Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration, University of Stockholm, Sweden1981 Diploma in Fine Arts at Gerlesborg Art Institute, Stockholm, SwedenEXHIBITIONSSOLO2008 "Elsewhere" Habitat Center, New Delhi, India2007Artmasala MFA Thesis Show at Corredor Gallery, College of Fine Arts, U.P. Diliman, Philippines2005Pinto Gallery, Antipolo, Philippines2003Homecoming Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India2002Profound Moments Khan al Magrabi, Cairo, Egypt2001 Mashrabia Gallery, Cairo, Egypt2000 Rhythm of the East Community Services Association, Cairo, Egypt1999Cairo- Inspiration and Color Sheba Gallery, Cairo, Egypt1998 Drik Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh1995 La Galerie, Dhaka, Bangladesh1994 Kunstlervitrine, Kaiserhaus, Berne, Switzerland1994 Galerie Coverma, Murten, Switzerland1992 Kunstlervitrine, Kaiserhaus, Berne, Switzerland1991 Zauber der Natur Galerie Kunstvitrine, Berne, Switzerland1991Genossenschaftliche ZentralBank, Berne, SwitzerlandSELECTED GROUP2007Shifting Landscapes of Forms The Room Upstairs, Manila, Philippines2007 Boxed Cultural Center of Philippines, Manila, Philippines2006Boxed Big Sky Mind, Manila, Philippines2005Beyond Boundaries Corredor Gallery, CFA, UP Diliman, Philippines2005Harmony Show, Reliance Industries, Mumbai, India2004 Revert to the Nucleus, Women on Women, Indian Art Circle Delhi, India2001 Contrasts World of Art, Cairo, Egypt2000 Nitaq, Wust El Balad, Art Festival, Cairo, Egypt1996 Emerging Talents, ABN-AMRO Bank, Chennai, India1995 Galerie Tanner, Three-man show, Berne, Switzerland1994 ART EXPO 94, United Nations Womens Guild, Palais des Nation, Geneva, Switzerland1992 Galerie Look and Like, Berne, Switzerland.