Born in 1993 in Varanasi, India, Chicago-based artist Janhavi Khemka is an interdisciplinary artist who graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting from the Faculty of Visual Art, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 2015. She studied MFA in Graphics from Kala Bhavana Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, in 2017, and later, she pursued an MFA in Studio Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA, in 2023.
Khemka explores acoustics through woodcut printmaking and experimental installations incorporating animation, sound, performance, and vibratory materials. She has exhibited her artwork in regional, national, and international galleries and institutions throughout the United States, India, Norway, Korea, and the United Kingdom.
Janhavi Khemka's recent exhibitions at Hyde Park Art Center's Biennial, Comfort Station, and SITE Student Galleries in Chicago, IL, have received recognition. She has been awarded prestigious fellowships, including the KALA Art Institute Residency in Berkeley, California, and the 3Arts/Body of Work Residency in collaboration with the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Khemka has also worked closely with renowned Japanese printmaker Paul Furneaux in Edinburgh, UK. She was honored with the UC Berkeley South Asia Artist Prize (2024) and the Lalit Kala Akademi Award (2022) for her installation Sapna.
Self-portrait, 35 colour woodcut print on rives BFK paper, 22” H x 19” W, 2024
Featured Artworks
Letter to My Mother
Stop motion animation from woodcut print, video projection, sound, vibration, plywood platform. 72 inches x 48 inches x 3 inches. 2023. Duration: 3.32 minutes loop
Photo and Video credits - Mikey Mosher
Warning: It is time
Woodcut prints on rives BFK paper (3 Series). 88 x 42 inches. 2023.
Comfort Station, Chicago. Photo credit: Mikey Mosher
My Room as Hell
Woodcut prints on rives BFK paper and Animation on the projection. 33 x 22 inches. 2021
Photo and Video credits - Janhavi Khemka and Mikey Mosher
#1505
Performance, Art and Technology, Utensils, Plywood Platform, Mic, AMP. Size variable, and platform: 36 inches x 36 inches x 3 inches. 2023
Comfort Station, Chicago. Photo and Video credit: Mikey Mosher
“चटाई”
Woodcut print, plywood platform. 72 inches x 48 inches x 2 inches. 2021
Photo and Video credits - Janhavi Khemka and Mikey Mosher
Sleeping
Woodcut print. 4 panels of 96 x 24 inches (each); a small panel of 14 x 11 inches. 2022
Photo credits - Mikey Mosher
#1621
Charcoal on the Paper. Life size of doors (six series). 2022
Photo credits - Janhavi Khemka