Rithika Merchant (b. 1986) received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Parsons - The New School of Design, New York (2008). Since graduating, she has exhibited her work extensively, including a number of solo exhibitions in India, France, Spain, Germany and the United States. Merchant's work explores the connecting myths, stories and ideas that are shared by cultures all around the world. Nature's influence on her painting is evident in her use of organic shapes and non saturated colours. Her paintings and collages are made using a combination of watercolour and cut paper elements, drawing on 17th century botanical prints and folk art, to create a body of work that is visually linked to our collective pasts.
Solo exhibitions include Terraformation, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2023); Festival of the Phoenix Sun, Galerie LJ, Paris (2022), TARQ, Mumbai, India (2021); Birth of a New World, TARQ, Mumbai, India (2021); Mirror of the Mind, Gallery LJ, Paris, France (2019);Where the Water Takes Us, TARQ, Mumbai, India (2017); Ancestral Home, Galería Bien Cuadrado, Barcelona, Spain (2017); Intersections, Galeria Combustion Espontanea, Madrid, Spain (2016); Luna Tabulatorum, Stephan Romano Gallery, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Reliquaries: The Remembered Self’, TARQ, Mumbai (avec Suruchi Choksi), India (2015); Encyclopedia of the Strange, Tiny Griffon Gallery, Nuremberg, Germany (2014); Mythography, Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai, India (2013); Mitologia Comparada, Swab Art Fair, with Galeria Espai b, Barcelona, Spain (2012); Origin of Species, Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai, India (2011);Worlds Within Words, Fabrica do Braco de Prata, Lisbon, Portugal (2009); Conversations With Myself, Pois. Cafe, Lisbon, Portugal (2009); Collection of Dreams, Convento Sao Francisco De Mertola, Mertola, Portugal (2008).
Group exhibitions include (2024) 11th Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; The Bunker Artspace (Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody), The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, USA (2023); Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2023); Mining Mythology, Sarmaya Foundation, Mumbai, India (2022); Uprising, Schloss Görne, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2022); Asia Now, Paris, with Galerie LJ, France (2022); Art India, New Delhi, with Tarq Mumbai, India (2022); CFHILL, Stockholm, Mentors, curated by Sanra Weil, also with Olafur Eliassion, The Gee’s Bend, Marie-Louise Eckman Miki Krastman, Anne Samat and Barbara Kruger (2021); Sovereign Asian Art Price Finalist Exhibition, Hong Kong (2021); In Orbit, Two Person Show, Rachel Garrad and Rithika Merchant, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2021); DDESSIN art fair, with Galerie LJ, Paris, France (2021); Metamorphosis, Two Person Show with Benoît Huot, Brussels, Belgium (2021); Work in Progress, Galeria Bien Cuadrado, Barcelona, Spain (2019); Chloe Couture, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine (2019);Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam / The World Is One Family, Kolkata Centre For Creativity, Emami Art, Kolkata, India (2019);The Dot that went for a walk, The Royal Opera House, Mumbai, India (2019); Spring!, Galerie LJ, Paris, France (2019); Breaking Barriers, Jehangir Art Gallery / Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai, India (2018);We See You, We Hear You, The Hospital Club Gallery, London, UK (2018); Fashion Inside and Out, The Michelangelo Foundation, Venice, Italy (2018); Homo Faber, Michelangelo Foundation, Venice; Italy (2018); Portal, October Gallery, London, UK (2018); Sensorium / The End Is Only The Beginning, Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, Goa (2018); India Art Fair, with TARQ, New Delhi, India (2018); State of Art Mazda Space, with galleria Bien Cuadrado and Barcelona Young Gallery Weekend, Barcelona, Spain (2017); This Burning Land Belongs To You, Swiss Cottage Gallery, London, UK (2017); The talk between worms and the stars, The New Gallery, Calgary, Canada (2017); G / rove Latitude 28, New Delhi, India (2017); Roots of Healing, Northrup Gallery, Goldstein Museum of Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (2017); Gallery III, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA (2016); Romania Statim Finis, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA (2016); The Creepy Room, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA (2016); Language of the Birds: Occult and Art, 80WSE Gallery, New York, USA (2016); Hieroglyphica, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA (2015); Magica Sexualis, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA (2015); The Morbid Anatomy Museum, New York, USA (2015); Rite of Passage, Art*ry Gallery, Fort Kochi, Kerala, India (2015); Reliquaries: The Remembered Self, TARQ, Mumbai, India (2015); Not Man The Less But Nature More, Summerhall, Edinburgh, UK (2015); Metro Curates Art Fair, with Stephen Romano Gallery, The Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, USA (2015); Abundantia Cornu Copiae Stephen, Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA (2014).
Highlights and Collections
Rithika Merchant has been the recipient of various prices amongst them by the Institut Français, Villa Ndar, Saint-Louis, Senegal (2022); the Sovereign Asian Art Prize by Vogue Hong Kong, as well as the Le Prix DDessin, Paris, France (2021). She has also collaborated with Chloé, a French fashion house on multiple collections for which she was awarded the Vogue India Young Achiever of the Year Award at its Women of the Year Awards 2018, as well as named one of Vogue Magazine's VogueWorld 100 Creative Voices. Merchant's work can be found in many public and private collections, amongst them the Chloé Archive; Elisabeth and Hartwig Ochsenfeld, Arthouse Wolfsberg / Garana; Palais Galliera, Musée de la mode de la Ville de Paris, France; the Samandi Art Foundation in Dhaka, Bangladesh and in Mumbai, India; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Fashion Resource Centre), USA; Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai, India, The Collection DBRM, Paris, France; The Collection Aarti Lohia, London, UK.