Rekha Rodwittiya was born in Bangalore in 1958 and completed her graduation from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda in 1981. She then received a scholarship for her M.A. in Painting from Royal College of Art, London in 1984. Her work reflects her sensitivity towards socio-political attitudes along with the reflections from her past. Her fervent activity of painting is a struggle for her own rightful existence.
The artist draws on a heritage of elemental imagery, tempered by psychological insights, portraying women through the prism of personal experience and day-to-day realities.
She has always been concerned with the representation of the female figure in her quest to find the vocabulary to represent women without objectifying them. She represents large clothed gigantesque women as the archetypal figure in their daily work rituals, dwarfing their tools and objects that surround them.
Rekha Rodwittiya has represented India in several prestigious art shows internationally apart from a series of workshops and lectures on Indian art. She has held solo exhibitions at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai, Art Heritage, New Delhi, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai, Seagull Foundation for Arts, Kolkata, the Gallery 678, New York. She has also participated in the 2nd Biennale, Havana and in "Six Young Contemporaries" in Geneva.
The paintings in bright and bold colors continue to have Rodwittiya`s language in the form of feminine figures and decorative and symbolic tapestry. According to her the colors bring about an optical association. Her basic philosophy is to visualize beauty in the most trivial of things.
The representation of the female figure has been a paramount concern for her. Female figures in her work from the 1980s were tortured and broken. Recent it has been noticed that Rodwittiya had started exploring archetypal figuration of the female form in a celebratory mode. They present the protagonist as historical witness, as an entity that participates in, observes and comments on situations in the contemporary environment.
Awards received by Rekha Rodwittiya
* 1994 Junior Fellowship, Ministry of Culture and Human Resources, Government of India
* 1990 Conferred the Staff Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation Asian Cultural Council to Work in the U.S.
* 1984 Unilever Painting Award, Royal College of Art, London
