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Tree Of Life

A virtual gallery event and emergency relief fundraiser with 100% of profits going to Indian artisans

BHASKAR CHITRAKAR

KALIGHAT ARTIST

Bhaskar Chitrakar comes from a family of patuas (painters from an artisan community in West Bengal) that have been practicing Kalighat painting since the 19th century. While his work upholds classical technique, he is the first to bring visions of contemporary society into this traditional art. Now isolated in the bystreets of Kalighat in South Kolkata, Chitrakar has introduced the coronavirus into his work, and his depictions of the virus have mutated and evolved along with its ever-widening grip.

Kalighat painting takes its name from the ghats along the river Hooghly, below a great temple dedicated to the goddess Kali. As patuas from rural communities migrated into Kolkata, some earned money by selling small paintings that they could create quickly, giving rise to the graphic style that depicts one or two figures on a blank background. Subjects ranged from Kali herself to “Bibi-Babu” paintings that depicted the lifestyles of Kolkata’s bourgeoisie and their domestic worlds. Chitrakar’s idea to infuse coronavirus into these quotidian scenes is an especially timely stroke of genius as we all live with the current period of forced domesticity.

TREE OF LIFE ARTISTS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Click the artist images to view their incredible works.

BHASKAR CHITRAKAR

BHASKAR CHITRAKAR

Kalighat Artist

Depicting everything from the divine to the cheeky, Kalighat painting is a traditional medium that’s ripe for modern insight in the hands of a master artist.

KIRIT CHITARA

KIRIT CHITARA

Kalamkari Artist

Exquisitely detailed Gujarati kalamkari painting, still rendered by hand in the tradition of eight generations of master craftsmen.

SHAMLU DUDEJA & MALIKA VARMA

SHAMLU DUDEJA & MALIKA VARMA

She Kantha

Kantha, the famed running-stitch embroidery of Eastern India, is taken to new heights of artistry in the hands of SheKantha’s artisans.

RUPA TRIVEDI

RUPA TRIVEDI

Adiv Pure Nature

Luxurious garments and accessories, created in pursuit of a sustainable fashion supply chain and innovatively using dyed herbs and the floral blessings left at Mumbai temples.

Rajan Vankar

Rajan Vankar

Traditional Kutch Weaving

A 4th generation master weaver from the Sarli village located in the rural Kutch region of India, Rajan Vankar crafts one-of-a-kind textiles.

ANIL VANGAD

ANIL VANGAD

Warli Artist

A folk art tradition that carries echoes of the ancient past, Warli rice-paste painting captures the life and traditions of a tribal people.

SUFIYAN KHATRI

SUFIYAN KHATRI

Master Ajrakh Artist

Sufyian Khatri, world class artisan and textile maker, carves his own woodblocks to create intricate and vibrant patterns for his hand-crafted textiles. Khatri’s natural dye block-printing studio is located outside of Bhuj, in the Kutch. 

Thilak Reddy

Thilak Reddy

KALAMKARI ARTIST

Thilak Reddy is a talented young artist originally from Kalamkari, Andhra Pradesh, a town along the Coromandel Coast of India that has long been famous for the production of mordant-painted and -dyed textiles, popularly known today as kalamkari (literally “pen work”).

 

 

Gohar Sajid

Gohar Sajid

SABAH Pakistan

Gohar Sajid is a founding member and co-chairperson of SABAH Pakistan, a non-profit organization in Pakistan that works to support artisans throughout the country.

Hemangini Rathore

Hemangini Rathore

Sudarshan Artisan Collective

a thriving artisan collective that aims to preserve and promote traditional techniques and motifs found in folk textiles from India by creating contemporary designs and products.

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