Dipali Gupta
Dipali Gupta’s art practice is an exploration of societal constructs from the domain of the feminine. Influenced by Foucauldian biopolitics, religious habituations, socio-political constructs, and its psychosomatic effects, Dipali’s experimental works question the normative and strive to reclaim space and meaning. Her concepts usually defy myths of domestication, reproduction, spectatorship, self, and identity. Set amongst Deleuzian societies of control, her practice subverts notions of patriarchy, androcentricity and binarism.
-
Her multi-disciplinary approach re-appropriate less significant genres by layering concepts with artistic and social canons. Her research interests include feminist theory, post humanism, the body and identity politics. Dipali has been awarded the Marian Treger Fellowship for Enduring Creativity, 2025 at Virginia Centre for Creative Arts, USA. She was nominated finalist for The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, 2022 and is the winner of the prestigious Chan Davies Art Prize, 2018. Her series titled ‘Her Pleasure’ examine contemporary notions of female sexuality and explore the concept of the assemblage and Donna Haraway’s cyborg.
Dipali Gupta lives and works between South East Asia and Mumbai. Her work has been exhibited in Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur with expositions and symposium in Portugal, London, Miami, Paris, and New Delhi. A graduate from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore and Goldsmith’s University, London, Dipali was nominated for the Young Master’s Art Prize 2019 and The Wells Art Contemporary Award 2020, London. She was selected for the Drawing Research Residency 2020 by L’AIR Arts, Paris and co-moderates the reading group, ‘Constructing the Body’ for Malaysia Design Archive. Her work is included in The Ilham Art Show, 2022, Singapore Art Week 2021 and NAFAS, Maybank Emerging Women Artists of 2021. She has taught Cinema and Sociology as a parttime instructor at Multimedia University (MMU), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Dipali Gupta
TITLE
Green Ripa
74 × 58cm
Acrylic on canvas
2020
‘Desire Lines and Pages From the Book of Spring’ explores contemporary perceptions of female sexuality and female sexual pleasures. ‘Desire lines’ is an architectural term, usually used to describe trampled paths that deviate from the pre-planned urban design. Similar to urban planning, in the context of female sexuality, desire lines can be considered as solutions that ingeniously navigate the terrain of social, political and religious norms and subvert perceptions of female sexual pleasure.
TITLE
Devoured In The City
79.5 × 100cm
Mixed Media collage, acrylic ink vibrator marks, acrylic paint on used canvas
2024
JOURNAL ENTRY
Devoured in the City of Dreams re-interprets aspects of the early eastern pornography of the Japanese Shunga. The work created through a feminine assemblage of body and machine, fuses abstract vibrator marks with historical erotica from the Edo and Meiji Period in Japan. The physical body in this artwork does not have its usual form or structure thus eliminating its sexual signifiers and challenging notions of the male gaze. This work then becomes a combination of abstract expressionism and eroticism deconstructing historical ideas of eroticism, objectification and sensuality that are the foundations of the act of sex that most often subjugate female sexuality. Dipali’s art practice intends to break these societal norms of female pleasure and reclaim a space for female desires by way of an assemblaging cyborg regenerating history from an alternative stand point.
TITLE
Where are the butterflies, Jeff?
76 × 56cm
Collage on acrylic paper - Long range RFID Tag stickers, gold leaf, acrylic paint
2020
In The Kinetic Perimeter, the canvas becomes a site of intersection between the private interior and the expansive, often invisible, mechanics of global warfare. Through a dense layering of acrylic and collage, the work captures the psychological atmosphere of a world in a state of permanent mobilization.
TITLE
A piece of lace
46 × 61cm
Mixed media collage, acrylic ink on canvas
2020
JOURNAL ENTRY
Sometimes I just want to create work because it feels good to work with your hands. This work was an experiment into abstract expressionism to express what was on my mind at the moment. I wanted to explore the Deleuzian idea of desire as a producing assemblage. But I do not want to conceptualise this work. I want to think of its materiality and the movement of lines and the kind of marks it leaves behind. More than that I want to think about the piece of lace that subconsciously made its way into the work. This work helped me be in the present and create in a flow state without the pressure of an outcome.
TITLE
What did you see?
120 × 91cm
Acrylic on canvas
2020
JOURNAL ENTRY
I was so focused on getting the vibrator marks in the right place in this one. Chance plays a big role in my artworks. Almost like the machine has its own mind and I cannot be in authority with it rather I have to work by its side, along with it. There is something wonderful about working along with something or someone. The power dynamics fail in such situations and the outcomes feel immensely satisfying and dignified. The Japanese kimonos are so beautiful, I admit I get carried away in creating the most fantastic designs. The fluidity of it all feels unburdened and all embracing.