"Gangubai" Artwork

Charuka Arora (b. 1993) is an internationally exhibited visual artist based in Agra, India. She earned her B.A. in History and Advertising from Delhi University in 2014 and her Design degree from Pearl Academy (Delhi) and Domus Academy (Milan) in 2016. Her work examines identity, intergenerational memory and cross-cultural heritage and primarily takes the form of paintings, handcrafted collages and mural installations.

In many of her collages, Charuka skillfully combines handcrafted Indian textiles, motifs and embellishments with western fashion trends to effect new ways of identifying womanhood. Such artistic gestures speak to her interest in undoing dichotomous understandings of traditional and modern worldviews.

In her paintings and murals, Arora often illustrates scenes from folklore and mythological tropes to aesthetically inhabit the human-nature continuum. This becomes her way of exploring how culturally-situated narratives can be repurposed to address contemporary ecological catastrophes.

Notably, almost all her works are materially maximalist, carefully layering watercolors, wooden fibres, handcrafted textiles, embroidery and embellishments. By producing such detail-oriented work in different scales, Charuka invites viewers to both acknowledge and experience the tactile quality of the material being used.

Arora’s works have been exhibited in prestigious institutions in India and abroad such as Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (Delhi), Artbuzz Studios (Delhi), Woman Made Gallery (Chicago), to name a few. Her work has been written about in leading art and culture outlets including Platform, The Jealous Curator, FAD Magazine, Visionary Art Collective, Art Mums United, Create! Magazine, among others. Alongside her work in the studio, Arora is a passionate advocate for women in the arts. In 2020, she founded the Arts to Hearts Project, a global publishing and networking initiative dedicated to expanding curatorial opportunities and arts education for women creatives around the world.