Bansi Dholakiya

Bansi Dholakiya is a Baroda-based visual artist trained in painting and printmaking, currently working primarily in painting. Her practice is deeply rooted in observing natural forms and everyday surroundings, which she transforms into abstract visual languages. Drawing from memories of Gujarat’s diverse terrains—paddy fields, deserts, farmlands, and salt pans, her work reflects a sustained engagement with landscape as both material and process. Dholakiya’s paintings emerge through an intensive, time-consuming method of layering, scratching, and erasure. Treating the surface like earth, she applies multiple coats over extended periods, often working on a single canvas for months. Mark-making and abrasion become essential gestures through which abstraction takes form, emphasizing process over representation. Rather than narrating specific stories or concepts, her work foregrounds the act of painting itself, where material, time, and bodily labor shape meaning. Through this tactile and physical engagement, Dholakiya seeks to translate the vastness, openness, and rhythm of nature into a painterly language that resists finality and embraces continuous becoming.

She lives and works in Baroda, Gujarat.

Academics

M V A Printmaking from faculty of fine arts, M S University in 2014

B V A in Painting from C N College of fine arts, Ahmedabad in 2012

Awards

“Upadhya foundation grant, Mumbai (2023).

“Prafulla Dahanukar” Grant (2022).

MAP Indian Artist Relief Fund, Bangalore (2021).

“All India Bronze Medal” Award Prafull Dahanukar ART, Foundation, Maharashtra (2021).

Prafulla Dahanukar Gujarat State Award (2019).

“Gujarat State lalit kala” academy Painting Award ,Ahmedabad (2012).

Kala Ravi Trust Sheth C. N. Collage Portrait Award, Ahmedabad (2012).

“Gujarat state Lalit Kala” Academy painting Award, Ahmedabad (2011).

Kala Ravi Trust Sheth C.N. Collage Sketching Award, Ahmedabad (2011).

Show Organization by Municipal Corporation Award, Jamnagar (2010).

Camlin Art Foundation competition, Jamnagar (2004)