Hemali Bhuta

Drawing from her ever-expanding collection of commonplace materials, Hemali Bhuta sculpts spaces, creating installations that are the product of profound contemplation of the environment in which her art is exhibited. After growing tired of her job as an interior decorator, Bhuta shifted careers and went to art school for painting, though she continues to integrate a rigorous study of spatial arrangements, histories, and quirks in her works, tailoring them to specific locations. She begins her process by exploring the colors, textures, sizes and smells of various objects, commonplace trinkets, and tools, such as rubber-bands, toothpicks, incense sticks, and wax—items whose form and essence transforms over time through repeated use.  Indeed, transience is a key theme in Bhuta’s practice: after the deinstallation of her often enormous installations, her artworks exist solely in the form of archival prints, photographs, and other documentation. 

Bhuta’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo in Rome and the Musée d'Art Contemporain Lyon, as well as numerous spaces in her native India.