Madhvi Parekh

Place: Sanjaya

Born: 1942

Biography:

Madhvi Parekh is an Indian contemporary artist living in New Delhi. Her work revolves around childhood memory, women’s craft, folk art and Indian myths. Although her inspirations are traditional, her style is contemporary as she was greatly influenced by Paul Klee. It represents folk art but does not draw from any one specific folk tradition. Madhvi Parekh was born in the village of Sanjaya near Ahmedabad, Gujarat where her father was a Gandhian school teacher and postmaster. In 1957, at the age of fifteen, she married Manu Parekh, an Indian artist who studied at the JJ School of Art. They moved first to Ahmedabad, then Mumbai where she did a course in Montessori training. In 1964, they then moved to Kolkata where they lived to 1965 before moving to New Delhi. Initially, Madhvi Parekh did not aspire to become an artist herself but her husband Manu inspired her to take up art. She started painting in the 1960s while pregnant with their first daughter, Manisha. In 1968, Madhvi exhibited her work for the first time at the Birla Academy in Kolkata. One of her paintings was selected to be in the annual show of Lalit Kala Akademi and then purchased by the national institution helping to launch her career. In 1973 she had her first solo show at the Chemould Art Gallery, Kolkata.