Varsha Nair is based in Baroda, India, where she studied painting at Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University. She lived in Thailand from 1995 to 2019 where as one of the key co-organizers of Womanifesto, she was instrumental in conceptualising projects that stretch beyond the traditional model of biennial exhibition-making to produce intergenerational and cross-disciplinary workshops, collaborations, and networks. She has exhibited internationally and presented at various symposia including as keynote speaker for the symposium, In Light of Crisis: The Fraught Significations of Contemporary Biennials held at Zurich University. Her writings have been published in n paradoxa, Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, and Ctrl+P Journal of Contemporary Art of which she is Editorial Board member.
Varsha is currently Guest Lecturer with the Masters of Arts Program at HSLU, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Exhibitions include at: Bangkok Art & Culture Center, WTF Gallery, Bridge Art Space, About Cafe and Cities on the Move 6 (Bangkok), Lodypop (Basel), Khoj International & Devi Art Foundation (New Delhi), documenta 15 (Kassel), Art in General (New York).
Performance presentations
Voices from the Courtyard for Womanifesto 2020: Gatherings, Baroda (2020); Art-Plus Performance, Matsumoto (2015); Meridian | Urban, a project by Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2011); Buka Jalan, National Museum of Art, Kuala Lumpur (2011), Hochformat, Kaskadenkondensator, Basel (2010), Beyond Pressure, Yangon, Myanmar (2014and 2009), Asiatopia 11, Bangkok (2009); Performance Saga, Basel (2009), OPEN 10 Performance Art Festival, Beijing (2009); Khoj Live, New Delhi (2008); On the Move, Hong Kong (2008); Tate Modern, London (2006); Fondazion Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2006); National Review of Live Art, Glasgow and Perth (2010, 2006, 2004)
Projects
Lasuemo - online gathering on last Sunday each month. 2021 and ongoing https://lasuemo.net/about/
Womanifesto 2020: Gatherings. Udonthani, Baroda, Sydney, Basel, Berlin, London. 2020 http://blog.womanifesto.com/
STUDIOLOG, online studio in collaboration with HSLU Lucerne 2017-2018 www.studiolog.ch
Invisible Labour. Master-Dialogue Workshop in collaboration with Jerome Ming for Masters students at Lucerne School of Art. 2019
Shift Maps. Workshops at SEA Junction, Bangkok. http://seajunction.org/gallery/sea-junction-activities/shift-maps-exhibition-4- november-4-december-2017-at-1100-am-700-pm/
Negotiating Routes: Ecologies of the Byways, 2010. Project Initiator http://khojworkshop.org/project/negotiating_routes_ecologies_byways
Womanifesto Artist-in-Residence program, Boon Bandarn Farm, Kantharaluk, N E Thailand, 2001 and 2008; No Man’s Land web project 2006; Procreation/Postcreation 2003. https://www.womanifesto.com/
Mapping the Body: Body dialectics by women artists from Asia, NRLA 2006, Glasgow. National Review of Live Art. http://www.newterritories.co.uk
600 Images/60 artists/6 curators/6 cities: Bangkok/Berlin/London/Los Angeles/Manila/Saigon, Curatorfor Bangkok, 2005.
Selected Bibliography
Crisis and Collectives Shaping Art Events. From Events that Matter to Events that Care. Julie Ren, Charlotte Matter, Rosa Sancarlo & Virginia Marano. Third Text. Numbers 184-185. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09528822.2023.2297626
Art on the Back Burner: Gender as the Elephant in the Room of Southeast Asian Art Histories. Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez. Southeast of Now:Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia. Volume 3, Number 1, March 2019
Womanifesto. Bo Choy for Art and Its Worlds.Afterall publication 2021.https://www.afterall.org/book/art-and-its-worlds- exhibitions-institutions-and-art-becoming-public
The Rise of AlternativeBiennials, by Ho See Wah, Art and Market, May 18, 2021. https://www.artandmarket.net/analysis/2021/5/18/the-rise-of-alternative-art-biennials
The Art of Feminism: Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality. Edited by Helena Reckitt. Tate Publishing 2018. ISBN 9781849766494
Taking it on Faith: Inscribing the Un(der) written in the work of Varsha Nair and Raquel de Loyola. Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez. n.paradoxa, volume 34, 2014 vol34_npara_73-76_Eileen-Legaspi-Ramirez
Fertiliser Fridays, interview, http://sharonchin.com/fertilizer-fridays-varsha-nair-2/ 2012
Performance Saga. Quinn Latimer. Frieze, May 2009. http://blog.frieze.com/performance_saga/
Withdrawal Symptom in Artistic Mind - taking the case of Thailand. Keiko Sei. Springerin. Winter 2010
CriticalTexts; Aesthetics and Political Sub-Texts. Katy Deepwell. Text & Subtext – Contemporary Art and Asian Women. 2001
Asia Art Archive https://aaa.org.hk/en/ideas/ideas/interview-with-varsha-nair
Published texts
Womanifesto. A Biennale Art Exchange in Thailand, Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia. Vol.3 No.1 March 2019
Letters to what we want, a project by Sharon Chin https://sharonchin.com/i-want-to-be-around-to-see-days-dawn/
Editorials for Issue numbers 7, 14 and 16, Ctrl+P Journal for Contemporary Art
No Deadlines in Live Art, National Review of Live Art 30th Anniversary Publication, 2010
Interpreters of Dreams, Beyond Pressure 2, Catalogue text, 2009
Shudders in the cradle, for Women, Art and Technology: Collected Essays. Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2005.
no work is good work - Womanifesto Workshop 2001, art4d, January 2002, Bangkok and SPAFA Journal, volume 12 Number 1 January – April 2002
Womanifesto– Jogging ahead, n.paradoxa, UK. Volume 4, 1999; Bang, Bangkok, December 1999; Art AsiaPacific, April 2000
Artists view plastics and other waste, Tiempo, Global warming and the Third World,Issue 27, March 1998
Links
https://lasuemo.net/category/projects/
Let's talk about the weather https://weather-here.cloud/
http://monday2monday.tumblr.com/ - ongoing project with Lena Eriksson.
http://studiolog.ch/ - co organiser, collaborative online studio network
www.ctrlp--artjournal.org - editorial board member
www.womanifesto.com - co organiser
http://seajunction.org/gallery/sea-junction-activities/shift-maps-exhibition-4-november-4-december-2017-at-1100-am-700-pm/ - workshop organiser
Negotiating Routes: Ecologies of the Byways: https://varshashavar.wordpress.com/ and https://khojworkshop.org/programme/negotiating-routes-ecologies-of-the-byways-i/