Bharti Kher was born in 1969 in London, England and has lived in New Delhi, India, since 1993. She studied painting, graduating in 1991 from Newcastle Polytechnic. In 1992 she travelled to India, deciding to live there permanently. Kher's practice is radically heterogeneous, encompassing painting, sculpture and installation. Overarching themes within her work include the notion of the self as a multiple and its interlocking relationships between man, animal and associated notions of hybridity. She manages to link abstraction and figuration through her practice and exploits the drama inherent in objects, tapping into mythologies and the numerous diverse associations a thing or place can bring.
Kher's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and was included in scores of group exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide. Recent solo presentations include: ‘Chimeras’, Centre Pasqu’Art, Biel Switzerland (2018), ‘Dark Matter’, Museum Frieder Burda, Berlin ,Germany (2017), ‘This Breathing House’, Freud Museum, London, England (2016), ‘The Laws of Reversed Effort’, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France (2016), ‘Matter’ Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, ‘In Her Own Language’, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, part of The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia (2016), 'three decimal points. Of a minute of a second of a degree', Hauser & Wirth Zürich (2014) and 'Misdemeanours', Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2014).
Recent group exhibitions include: ‘Surface Work’ Victoria Miro, London, England (2018), ‘Facing India’ Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany (2018), ‘Like Life: Sculpture, Colour and the Body (1300-Now)’, The Metropolitan Museum (2018).