Past
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Hurts So Good
Lumiere Festival, Durham 16 - 19 November 2023 Hurts So Good will take over Durham Market Place with a selection of new and existing signature neon-light artworks that together celebrate Burman’s rich Hindu-Punjabi heritage, with references to Indian mythology, popular culture, female empowerment, political activism and colonial legacy. These neon-light artworks are synonymous with her hugely popular installation... Read more -
The Shining Lights of Service
Brighton Royal Pavilion and Garden 11 November 2023 - 28 January 2024 The artwork remembers the soldiers cared for in the Royal Pavilion between 1914 and 1916 when it was used as a hospital for Indian soldiers wounded in the First World War. Burman’s colourful neon sculptures draw on the spectacle of the Pavilion interiors, where Asian symbols and motifs intermingle with... Read more -
Rich Mix: Pop Up Solo Show
Rich Mix Cultural Foundation 19 May - 7 June 2023 After featuring on the façade of Tate Britain in 2020, and in Covent Garden’s Market Building in 2021, Chila brings a selection of her beloved neon lights to our new ground floor Streetside space (formerly Indi-go Restaurant) – get up close with bold, colourful installations combining Hindu mythology, British iconography,... Read more -
Collected Light: Milan
An intimate showcase of work by women light artists 12 - 14 April 2023 Peacock, 2020 by Chila Singh Burman : Burman is celebrated for her radical feminist practice which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. Peacock was part of the hugely popular neon installation on the exterior of the Tate Britain ‘Remembering A Brave New World’ in 2020. She explains “my Peacock piece... Read more -
Gwangju Biennale: Soft and Weak Like Water
Gwangju, South Korea 7 April - 9 July 2023 Titled 'soft and weak like water' the exhibition’s Daoist theme will serve as both a thread linking various artistic practices and a conceptual proposition inspiring new productions. The Biennale will unfold across the city of Gwangju and bring conversations to the social, historical, and architectural contexts of its various venues,... Read more -
Bazaar, Solo Exhibit at Eton College
The Drawing Schools, Eton College 9 March - 12 May 2023 A retrospective exhibition of recent and early works, including paintings, etchings, drawings, photography, installation, mixed media and film. Chila's ice cream van will also be on show in the parade ground at the front of the Drawing Schools. Read more -
Poor Things: Fruit Market Gallery
Edinburgh 4 March - 21 May 2023 Poor Things is an exhibition that has come out of conversations about art and social class. Conversations that artists Emma Hart and Dean Kenning have had together as friends, and with the Fruitmarket , a free public space for art. The exhibition features artists : L inda Aloysius, Eric Bainbridge,... Read more -
21st Century Super Shrines
Western-Super-Mare, Culture Western 15 - 18 February 2023 PIGEON is part of '21st Century Super Shrines', a Historic England funded programme for Weston-super-Mare, delivered by Culture Weston, animating the town centre through artworks and experiences that reflect local voices and identities.
PIGEON explores the idea of 'homing', illuminating and celebrating the stories of those who have come from all over the world to make a home in Weston.
It also reclaims the virtues of this much maligned urban bird whose glorious history includes peace messenger, war hero and allotment buddy.
Scratch beneath the surface and there are dazzling lights to be found in our places, people and wildlife. Read more -
Light is Life
Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023 10 - 26 February 2023 Light is Life is the major event organised by A2A as part of the events scheduled to celebrate Bergamo Brescia – Italian Capital of Culture 2023. The courtyard of the donjon will host the work “Remembering a Brave New World” by British artist Chila Kumari Burman, an extraordinary site-specific installation... Read more -
Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Saket, New Delhi, and Noida, India 9 February - 30 April 2023 Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular, one of the first major exhibitions to provide a substantial survey of modern and contemporary art from South Asia engaging with popular culture, is on view at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) across its spaces in New Delhi and Noida, from... Read more -
Llum BCN Festival of Light
Barcelona 3 - 5 February 2023 Chila's Liberty and Light combines the pacifist message of Pablo Picasso's Guernica with the iconography of her own rich Hindu-Punjabi cultural heritage. The 20th-century masterpiece provides her inspiration for condemning today’s global turbulences. A succession of pandemic crises, wars and climate-change threats have framed the first decades of the 21st... Read more -
Victoria Beckham Store
Dover Street 1 - 31 December 2022 Chila's White Tiger, Monkey and Heart neon works went on display at fashion brand, Victoria Beckham's Dover Street showroom for winter 2021. Read more -
Ice Cream Van at the World Cup 2022
GREAT Campaign, Doha 20 November - 18 December 2022 Chila has created a brand new ice cream van, complete with multipcoloured neon Tiger sculpture on top, which will spend the next couple of years travelling the globe for major sporting and cultural events. The Tiger Van begins its journey at The Garden for the UK's GREAT campaign, hosted in... Read more -
Collected Light: SoShiro Gallery
An intimate showcase of work by women light artists 14 - 25 November 2022 Collected Light Exhibition comprises six artworks created by six different female artists, curated by Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton of Light Collective and displayed at boutique gallery, SoShiro in London, with the support of formalighting . Peacock, 2020 by Chila Singh Burman : Burman is celebrated for her radical feminist... Read more -
Barbe à Papa
CAPC Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux 3 November 2022 - 14 May 2023 Curated by Cédric Fauq, Chila will be exhibiting her works in a group show of over 40 artists, entitled Barbe à Papa (candy floss, literally Daddy's beard). Exhibition overview Every year in March and October, you can hear from the windows of the Capc Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux the... Read more -
The Horror Show!
Somerset House 27 October 2022 - 19 February 2023 This autumn Somerset House presents a major exhibition celebrating our greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, examining how ideas rooted in horror have informed the last 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain. The Horror Show! is a landmark exhibition that invites visitors to journey to the underbelly of Britain’s cultural... Read more -
MADE Showroom
The Power of Lighting Campaign 26 October - 17 November 2022 Read more -
Light Up the Museum
Museum of the Home, London 22 October 2022 - 9 January 2023 Chila’s Laxmi - a neon sculpture of the Hindu goddess of wealth and purity - brings a riot of colour and warmth to the green roof, sitting among its array of desert flora. Laxmi will be a beacon of light in the darkness of winter to welcome Museum visitors using... Read more -
Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular
Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE 2 September - 11 December 2022 Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular is one of the first major exhibitions to provide a substantial survey of modern and contemporary art from South Asia engaging with popular culture. Spanning works from the mid-twentieth century to the present, the exhibition will showcase artists addressing complex issues facing... Read more -
Merseyside Burman Empire
FACT, Liverpool 13 August 2022 - 18 June 2023 Part of the FACT Liverpool Radical Ancestry season. Multi-layered and ever-changing, Chila’s works utilise neon, sculpture, collage and film to challenge stereotypes around gender and cultural identity. Born in Bootle to Punjabi-Hindu parents, her unique style and understanding of ‘Britishness’ has been shaped by her working class childhood growing up... Read more -
Tate Modern Lates: Chila Kumari Singh Burman
Tate Modern, London 29 April 2022 Chila Kumari Singh Burman brought a bit of light to the dark days of the 20/21 winter lockdown, when thousands of Londoners made the pilgrimage to see her dazzling neon installation on the front of Tate Britain. The Punjabi Liverpudlian artist has curated the line-up for this month’s Tate Modern... Read more -
Best of British
Maddox Gallery, Westbourne Grove 21 April - 19 June 2022 This April, Maddox Gallery presented Best of British, a group exhibition celebrating the lasting influence of the YBA movement on contemporary art and culture throughout the United Kingdom. Emerging in the late 1980s as a distinctive new direction for British art, the loosely defined group of artists, headed by Damien... Read more -
Fanny's Rule
The Other Art Fair, Truman Brewery, London 17 - 20 March 2022 The mastermind behind the neon installation display at Tate Britain, Chila Kumari Singh Burman, is announced as The Other Art Fair London Guest Artist. The celebrated nonconforming, arresting, and mixed media work by Chila will be available to experience from 17 – 20 March 2022, at Old Truman Brewery… and... Read more -
Hidden in Plain Site
Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich 5 March - 2 April 2022 This multi-media exhibition examines the relationship between architectural sites and human trauma, hidden, buried, embedded in, and embodied by those sites. The show uses painting, film, animation, sculpture and interactive installations to explore how, rather than offering us refuge and protection, buildings and architectural sites can cast shadows over our... Read more -
Neon Drama and Pearl Drops
Mansard Gallery, Heal's, Tottenham Court Road, London W1 15 February - 28 March 2022 Chila was named as the first artist to take residence in February 2022, to mark the re-opening of the Mansard Gallery in Heal's, Tottenham Court Road. Having previously showcased Picasso and Matisse, Chila was invited to kick start the new space with a 22-piece exhibition titled Neon Drama and Pearl... Read more -
Embodied Change: South Asian Art Across Time
Seattle Asian Art Museum 14 January - 10 July 2022 Spanning a period from the third millennium BCE to today, the works in this exhibition offer metamorphic and compelling images of the human body. Most of the artists utilize female and feminized forms in a myriad of ways, including as a devotional object, as a mode of self-representation, and to... Read more -
Grayson's Art Club
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery 4 December 2021 - 4 September 2022 An exhibition of art works chosen by Grayson Perry and guest celebrities during season two of the hit TV series, Grayson’s Art Club. Spread across three floors in the museum, this blockbuster show is a vibrant and poignant chronicle of lockdown. The artworks made by the public, established artists, and... Read more -
Liverpool love of my life
Liverpool Town Hall 22 October - 7 November 2021 Liverpool Love of My Life is a celebration of Liverpool and the incredible upbringing that Chila had from her inspiring and enterprising parents. In her own words, Chila Kumari Burman describes the artwork as: “A visual love letter to my city, this piece will record my own remarkable journey from... Read more -
Blackpool Light Of My Life
Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool 19 October 2021 - 3 January 2022 Throughout autumn 2021, visitors were able to delight in a riotous display of multi-coloured new light works that have been specially commissioned for the exterior of the Grundy. Brought together under the title, Blackpool Light of My Life, the exhibition is Chila's love letter to the town which she visited... Read more -
Summer Exhibition 2021
Royal Academy of Arts 22 September 2021 - 2 January 2022 Chila submitted two works for the 2021 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. The theme of the 253rd Summer Exhibition is Reclaiming Magic. It was coordinated by British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare RA and championde artists from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures, especially those who may have been marginalised... Read more -
Hawala
Curated by Shezad Dawood, Paradise Row 16 September - 13 November 2021 Hawala takes as its starting point the parallels between the eponymous informal, decentralised, and ledger-based system of money exchange prevalent in South Asia and its diasporic communities, and the structure and functionality of blockchain technology. The show brings together a group of London-based artists of South Asian descent, Chila Kumari... Read more -
Do you see words in rainbows?
Covent Garden 26 August - 10 October 2021 About the installation Covent Garden is thrilled to announce that artist Chila Burman has taken over the historic Market Building with a new immersive large scale art installation. Launched on 26th August, Burman brings her vast neon sculptures into the South Hall of the Market Building, transforming the space into... Read more -
Suite of Seductive Subversion
Sirius Arts Centre, Cork 14 July - 2 October 2021 This exhibition features a selection of new etchings made at Cork Printmakers in 2021, using plates that ‘reproduce’ a variety of past works, after a residency carried out in late 2019. These prints epitomise Burman’s playful and ironic mode of aesthetic activism. Key themes include political events, ecology, racial segregation,... Read more -
The Deptford Mermaid
Deptford X 2021 9 - 18 July 2021 Seeking inspiration from Deptford’s dockyard history and the historic relationship the community has with the River Thames, Chila Kumari Singh Burman has created The Deptford Mermaid for Deptford X 2021. The work subverts the historic, often sexualised, symbolism of the mermaid and reclaims their use as a good luck charm,... Read more -
Democracies
Tate Liverpool 14 November 2020 - 11 September 2022 This display brings together artworks that look at what it means to live in a democracy. A democratic society is based on equality, protecting each person’s individual rights and upholding ideals such as freedom of speech. Often presented as ideal, there are in fact challenges in democratic societies. Marginalised groups... Read more -
Remembering a brave new world
Tate Britain Winter Commission 4 November 2020 - 31 January 2021 This magnificent installation, remembering a brave new world, combines Hindu mythology, Bollywood imagery, colonial history and personal memories. Inspired by the artist’s childhood visits to the Blackpool illuminations and her family’s ice-cream van, Burman covers the façade of Tate Britain with vinyl, bling and lights. She changes the figure of... Read more -
Midnight’s Family: 70 Years of Indian Artists in Britain
Ben Uri Gallery 7 August - 30 October 2020 This timely exhibition, which coincided with the date of Indian Independence (declared at midnight on 15 August 1947), addressed the representation of Indian immigrant artists (both first and second generation) working in Britain for more than 70 years. Part of the ongoing series of exhibitions produced by the ‘Ben Uri... Read more -
Chila Kumari Singh Burman solo show
OUTPUT Gallery 6 - 30 August 2020 For her show at OUTPUT, Chila exhibited a showreel of three moving image works. These included her video pieces made during quarantine in collaboration with Susanne Dietz titled ‘Armour (2020)’ alongside ‘Dada and The Punjabi Princess (2017)’ and ‘Candy Pop and Juicy Lucy (2008).’ Read more -
Punk Punjabi Prints: A Suitcase of Etchings, from Reason to Madness
Lavit Gallery, Cork 19 September - 12 October 2019 The Lavit Gallery presents an exhibition by British artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman, programmed with Cork Printmakers and curated by Miguel Amado. Burman’s practice explores the relationship between gender, class and ethnicity in the construction of identity. Her key medium is printmaking, often with collage, although she also uses sculpture,... Read more -
Tales of Valiant Queens
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art 20 October 2018 - 3 February 2019 This exhibition surveys Chila's practice, bringing together works made between the 1970s and today that focus on themes of female empowerment, social and political activism, folk traditions and colonial legacies. Forming part of the survey, and part of the Middlesbrough Collection is July 13th 1981, Chapeltown Uprisings and the Five... Read more -
KNOCK KNOCK: Humour in Contemporary Art
South London Gallery 22 September - 18 November 2018 KNOCK KNOCK explores the enduring use of humour as a device in contemporary art. Featuring works by more than thirty artists, the show spans the SLG’s main space and three floors of its new annexe in the former Peckham Road Fire Station. Curated by SLG Director, Margot Heller, with artist... Read more -
Illuminating India Exhibition
5000 years of Science and Innovation 4 October 2017 - 22 April 2018 Illuminating India was a season of exhibitions and events that celebrated India’s contribution to science, technology and mathematics. At its heart were two free major exhibitions: 5000 Years of Science and Innovation and Photography 1857–2017. Respectively, they presented a kaleidoscopic history of scientific breakthroughs in India and a unique photographic... Read more -
Self Portrait In Sugar
MAK, Lighthouse Studios, Shacklewell Lane, London 1 - 21 July 2017 Curated by Sylwia Serafinowicz Chila Kumari Burman played a crucial role in the emancipation of the image of an Asian woman since 1980s. Burman, breaks the stereotype of a submissive and motherly figure through subversion of the popular images of womanhood. Found images are often a starting point for her... Read more -
Beyond Pop
Wolverhampton Art Gallery 21 January - 26 March 2017 A solo exhibition, informed by popular culture, Bollywood, fashion and found objects. Read more -
Conceiving Space
Colombo Art Biennale, Sri Lanka 2 - 20 December 2016 The theme for the Colombo Art Biennale 2016 was ‘Conceiving Space.’ As an artistic provocation ‘Conceiving Space’ seeks to open up a paradigm of seeing and possibilities for creative production that engage with explorations and contestations that revolve around diverse senses of space. ‘Conceiving Space’ seeks to reimagine the traditional... Read more -
Absolute!
Grace Belgravia, London 19 - 30 September 2016 A celebration of colour, collage, print and mixed media, Chila’s work explores constructions of classed, gendered, sexualised and raced subjectivities. Held at the London women's health club. Read more -
Ghosts
Hangar, Lisbon 22 October - 27 November 2015 Curated by Paul Goodwin at HANGAR, an Artistic Research Center, located in the area of Graça, in Lisbon. ARTISTS Alia Syed, Chila Kumari Burman, Keith Piper, John Akomfrah, Leo Asemota, The Otolith Group, Lawrence Abu Hamden, Larry Achiampong & David Blandy and Roshini Kempadoo. CURATORIAL STATEMENT BY PAUL GOODWIN This... Read more -
No Colour Bar: Black British Art In Action 1960-1990
Guildhall Art Gallery, London 10 July 2015 - 24 January 2016 No Colour Bar was a major public group exhibition, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to explore the significance of Black British culture through a range of different mediums and the importance of its historical contribution to the UK and its wider impact as a political designation. This nuanced history... Read more -
My Rangila Merry-go-round: Chila Kumari Burman
Embrace Arts, Richard Attenborough Centre, Leicester 20 February - 19 April 2015 The exhibition was part of the celebration of the 130th anniversary of Leicester Society of Artists, and featured a talk with Chila as keynote speaker. Read more -
Fragments of My Imagination
Blindspot Gallery and PARADOX, Hong Kong 19 November - 23 December 2011 Presented by Blindspot Gallery and PARADOX, “Fragments of My Imagination” was a solo show by Chila Kumari Singh Burman. Following the exhibition shown in Singapore in September this year, the Hong Kong exhibition features a collection of 13 artworks including print and photographic artworks on paper and canvas that are... Read more -
Confectionaries & Conurbations
100 Tonson Gallery 30 August - 28 October 2007 As the planet shrinks and opportunities for migration widen, artist Chila Kumari Burman is intrigued by the collision, blurring, multiplicity and hybridity of differing cultural values. The unique blend of socially-minded, Liverpudlian mentality combined with a Punjabi-Hindu migrant upbringing, have provided a wealth of material for the artist to draw... Read more -
Candy Pop and Juicy Lucy
Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich 21 August - 16 September 2006 ‘Candy Pop and Juicy Lucy’ is a vividly coloured multi-layered, dream like psychedelic moving image work featuring pop images of ice cream cornets, ice lollies and an ice cream van with a soundtrack of ice cream van jingles that take you straight back to your childhood. The work is saturated... Read more -
Wish I Was Here
Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Travelling Gallery 1 - 30 June 2001 Six artists were commissioned to make portraits of poets, which were exhibited in both the Scottish National Portrait Gallery & the Travelling Gallery. Chila joined Catriona Grant, Craig Mackay, Elsie Mitchell, Iseult Timmermans and David Williams. Read more -
28 Positions in 34 Years
Bluecoat, Liverpool 20 October - 25 November 1995 A substantial solo exhibition at Bluecoat in 1995 by Chila, 28 Positions in 34 Years, representing her diverse practice interrogating cultural identity and political issues, toured to UK venues, including Bluecoat, in her hometown of Liverpool. Read more -
Southall Black Resistance Mural
With Kieth Piper for the GLC Anti Racism Project 27 September 1985 - 17 April 1986 Made in collaboration with Keith Piper as part of the GLC’s Anti-Racist Mural Project, their mural, painted on boards, was intended to reflect something of Southall’s important history as a site of resistance and struggle. The mural generated some controversy. Read more -
Four Indian Women Artists: Bhajan Hunjan, Naomi Iny, Chila Kuman Burman, Vinodini Ebdon
Indian Artists UK Gallery, London 1 December 1981 - 31 January 1982 The exhibition Four Indian Women Artists at the Indian Artists UK Gallery was organised by Bhajan Hunjan with Chila Burman, and included examples of their paintings and prints alongside wooden sculpture by Naomi Iny and ceramic works by Vinodini Ebdon. Read more
