Chila Kumari Singh Burman is a British artist, celebrated for her radical feminist practice, which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. She works across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film.
A significant figure in the Black British Art movement of the 1980s, Burman remains one of the first British Asian female artists to have a monograph written about her work; Lynda Nead's Chila Kumari Burman: Beyond Two Cultures (1995).
In 2018, she received an honorary doctorate from University of the Arts London for her impact and legacy as an international artist. In 2020, she was invited into the Art Workers' Guild as a Brother and in 2022, Burman was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to visual art.
Early life Born in Bootle, near Liverpool, England, to Indian Hindu Punjabi parents, Burman attended the Southport College of Art, Leeds Polytechnic and the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL where she graduated in 1982.
Career For more than four decades, Burman's practice has been at the intersection of feminism, race and representation. A key figure in the British Black Arts movement in the 1980s, Burman has remained rooted in her understanding of the diverse nature of culture. Continually seeking to break stereotypes and emancipate the image of women, she often uses self-portraiture as a tool of empowerment and self-determination.
In the 1980s, her work was shown in a number of seminal group shows including Four Indian Women Artists (UK Artists Gallery, 1982); Black Women Time Now (Battersea Arts Centre, London, 1983); The Thin Black Line (ICA, London, 1985); Black Art: New Directions (Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery, 1989) and the feminist exhibition Along the Lines of Resistance (Rochdale Art Gallery and touring, 1989).
In the 1990s and 2000s, Burman's works more explicitly explored her family history, specifically her father's work as an ice-cream van man in Bootle (in her exhibitions Candy-Pop & Juicy Lucy, Stephen Lawrence Gallery, University of Greenwich, London, 2006; Ice Cream and Magic, The Pump House, People's History Museum, Manchester, 1997). In the 1990s, her work was featured in the Fifth Havana Biennale (1994); Transforming the Crown (Studio Museum in Harlem, and Bronx Museum, New York, 1997); Genders and Nations (with Shirin Neshat; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York State, 1998). Her retrospective touring show, 28 Positions in 34 Years, went to Camerawork, London; Liverpool Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool; Oldham Art Gallery; Huddersfield Art Gallery; Street Level Gallery, Glasgow; Cardiff Technical College, Cardiff; Watermans Arts Centre, London. From the 2000s, her works were frequently shown internationally with notable group shows including South Asian Women of the Diaspora (Queens Library, New York, 2001) and Text and Subtext (Earl-Lu Gallery, Lasalle-SIA University, Singapore, 2000) toured to Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, Australia, in 2000 and Ostiasiataka Museet (Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities) Stockholm, in 2001, Sternersenmuseet, Oslo, Norway, and Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan; X-ray Art Centre (Rui Wen Hua Yi Shu Zhong Xin), Beijing, China, in 2002 (exhibition catalogue).
In 2018, Burman's survey show Tales of Valiant Queens was displayed at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. Bringing together works made between the 1970s up to 2018. The show focused on themes of female empowerment, social and political activism, folk traditions and colonial legacy. The show included many iconic pieces alongside newer works. The show was reviewed as one that showed "how the race, gender and class barriers the Burman family encountered formed the political dynamism of her work".
In 2020, Burman was selected as the fourth artist to complete the Tate Britain Winter Commission. The resulting installation Remembering A Brave New World, addressed the colonial history of Tate Britain and its Eurocentric position. Adorning the gallery façade with references to Indian mythology, popular culture, female empowerment, political activism and colonial legacy. It tried to show a need for better informed conversations, and more effective strategies for tackling racism in the art world and wider society. Burman has since gone on to complete light installation projects Do you see words in rainbows for Covent Garden's historic market stall building, Liverpool Love of My Life"Liverpool love of my life", Culture Liverpool. for the Liverpool Town Hall, and Blackpool Light of My Life for Blackpool's Grade II listed Grundy Art Gallery.Chila Kumari Singh Burman: Blackpool Light of My Life, Grundy Art Gallery. Burman has also featured in Sky Arts documentary special Statues Redressed and BBC2 documentary Art That Made Us, and has completed a number of commission pieces for brands including Netflix's White Tiger campaign and Byredo's new fragrance Mumbai Noise.
In 2023, Burman was part of the jury for the John Moores Painting Prize, along with Alexis Harding, The White Pube, Marlene Smith and Yu Hong.
Writing and publications Alongside visual arts, Burman has written extensively on feminism, race, art and activism. In 1987, she wrote "There have always been Great Blackwomen Artists", exploring the situation of black women artists in relation to Linda Nochlin's 1971 essay "Why have there been no Great Women Artists?" (first published in Women Artists Slide Library Journal no. 15 (February 1987), and then in Hilary Robinson (ed.), Visibly Female (London: Camden Press, 1987); also reproduced in Collective Black Women Writers, Charting the Journey: An Anthology on Black and Third World Writers (London: Sheba Publishers).
Her work appeared on the bookjacket of Meera Syal's two novels on first publication: Anita and Me (Doubleday/Transworld, 1996); Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (Doubleday/Transworld, 1999), as well as on the covers of James Proctor (ed.), Writing Black Britain, 1948–1998 (Manchester University Press, 2001); Roger Bromley (ed.), Narratives for a New Belonging: Diasporic Cultural Fictions (Edinburgh University Press, 2000); and Peter Childs and Patrick Williams, An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory (Prentice Hall, 1998).
Burman's work features in the 2018 exhibition publication No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990, edited by Beverley Mason and Margaret Busby."No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990 catalogue", Diaspora Artists.
Selected writings
2000: "Storm in a D-Cup", Artists Newsletter 1999: Artist's statements in Frances Borzello, Women and Self Portraiture (Thames and Hudson) Artist's Statement in "West Coast Line Here and There Between South Asia's", New Writing from Canada and India, nos. 26 and 27 "Crossing Cultures", artist's statement in "KHOJ International Workshops", Artists Newsletter Magazine, January 1998: "Objects of Désireé", Artists Pages with Lucretia Knapp n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal, Vol. 1, January Artist's statement in Sue Golding, Eight Technologies of Otherness (London: Routledge) 1995: "Automatic Rap", in Catherine Ugwu (ed.), Let's Get It On: The Politics of Black Performance (London: ICA, and Seattle: Bay Press), p. 113 "Right to Hope", in One World Art (UNESCO) 1993: "Enough is Enough", Feminist Art News, Vol. 4, No. 5 1992: "Power to the People: Fear of a Black Community", Feminist Art News, Vol. 3, no.9 "Ask How I feel/ Automatic Rap/ My New Work", Third Text, No. 19, Summer 1991: "Ask How I Feel", Feminist Arts News, Vol. 3, No. 6 (also guest editor for this issue on "Working Class Women Artists") "Power to the people: fear of a black community", Feminist Arts News, vol. 3, no. 9, pp. 14–15 1990: "Talking in Tongues", in Maud Sulter (ed.), Passion: Discourses on Black Women's Creativity (Hebden Bridge: Urban Fox Press) "Mash it up", in Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock, Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement, 1970-1985 (London: Pandora Press)
Selected reviews, articles, broadcasts, publications
2022: Bernardine Evaristo, "They are totally smashing it!’ Bernardine Evaristo on the artistic triumph of older Black women," The Guardian, 28 April 2022 2020: Louisa Buck, "Blinged-up but razor-sharp", interview, The Art Newspaper, 16 November 2020 2020: Alice Corriea, "Picturing Resistance and Resilience: South Asian Identities in the Work of Chila Kumari Burman", Visual Culture in Britain, 21 February 2020 2012: Rina Arya, "Chila Kumari Burman: Shakti, Sexuality and Bindis," KT press, London, 2012 2012: Kahu Kochar, "Challenging stereotypes", interview with C. K. Burman, Platform magazine review, 27 February 2012 Leslie Goodwin, "Brilliant portrait of artist", Leicester Mercury, 8 March 2012, p. 11 Drawing paper number #6 (Tate Liverpool) in conjunction with the Liverpool biennale 2012, co-curated by Mike Carney, Jon Barraclough, Gavin Delahunty 2011: Cheah Ui–Hoon, "Piecing together the Fragments", Singapore Business Times, 29 August 2011 Ryan, "In the Mix", Indian Express, 20 March 2011 "Exotic Edge", Blindspot exhibition, Home (Hong Kong), December, p. 47 Review of Blindspot exhibition, Ming Pao Weekly (Hong Kong), 3 December 2011, p. 119 2010: Richard Appignanesi (ed.), Beyond Cultural Diversity: The Case for Creativity (Third Text) Guardian online, Feminist postcard art auction at the Aubin Gallery, London, October Coline Milliard, "A Missing History: The Other Story revisited", Art Monthly, no. 339, pp. 30–31 2009: Katy Deepwell, "Feminist art practice rewind, remix, and pump up volume", Axis: Curated Collections, 29 July 2009 "Interview with Chila Burman", Space Studios online, 1 November 2007: "Close-up: Interview with Imogen Fox", The Guardian, 9 June 2007 Barbara Chandler, "Indian summer in the city", Evening Standard (London), 8 August 2007, p. 1 Hannah Pool, "Change your mind: When it comes to creativity there really are no limits: The artist: Chila Kumari Burman", The Guardian (London), 2 June 2007, p. 7 BBC Radio 4 Midweek, interview with Libby Purvis BBC Asian Network, radio Interview with Nikki Bedi 2006: Review of Candy Pop and Juicy Lucy in Time Out Stephen Pettifor, "The layering of self", Asian Art News, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 78–81 Richard Noyce, Printmaking at the Edge (London: A and C Black) 2005: BBC2, Desi DNA TV Arts programme 2004: Amit Roy, "Review", Calcutta and Bombay Times "Mind, Body, Spirit", British Medical Journal Amit Roy, "Ice-Cream Van Girl Cometh", Eastern Eye and Daily Telegraph Ali Hussein, "Dazzling", Times of India (Britain) Review of Points of View solo exhibition at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, A-N Magazine (January 2004) Derwent May, "Brunei Gallery — a medicine show perks up", The Times (London), 2 November 2004, p. 16. Rasheed Araeen, "The success and the failure of Black Art", Third Text (2004) 2003: "Interview with Nancy Hynes", Atlántica 35 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, "Our multicultural society is transforming Britart", The Independent (London), 17 March 2003, p. 15 BBC Radio 4, New BRIT Series, interview with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown 2002: John Cornall, "Fashioning lessons out of art; Stitched Up", Leamington Art Gallery & Museum, Royal Pump Rooms, Birmingham Post, 30 January 2002, p. 14 2001: Stuart Hall and Mark Sealy, Different, Phaidon LXE 9 – "Art and Light on Homerton High Street" Massimo Tommaso Mazza, 1st Valencia Biennial, Video Showroom, Christina Kasrlstam, "Text + Subtext", Stockholm Times, 20–25 October Franklin Sirmins, New York Time Out, 7 February "Flirt", "Storm in a D-Cup", Admit 1 Gallery, Art in Review, by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, 9 February S. Valdez, "Chila Kumari Burman at Admit One", Art in America, vol. 89, no. 10, pp. 169–169 Victoria Lu, "Text + Subtext", Artists Magazine, Singapore