Jitish Kallat

"My art is more like a researcher’s project who uses quotes rather than an essay,with each painting necessitating a bibliography"

Since graduating from the Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai, in 1996, Jitish Kallat has been widely recognised for his bold figurative paintings. Often self-referential with socio-political content drawn from the life of his own city, news events and popular culture, his practice has combined photography, painting and collage in large works up to seven metres long…

365 Lives. 2007

Jitish Kallat was born in 1974 in Mumbai (Bombay), India. He received his BFA in painting from the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai in 1996. Kallat’s paintings are often monumental, his largest painting being 8 × 20 feet (2.5 × 7 meters) in size. His subject matters are often self referential, depicting himself, his wife, and other members of his family. Kallat’s methodology involves a heavy reliance on photography, giving his paintings an appearance that resembles popular advertisement. His paintings are created by building up numerous layers of paint and collage that are then allowed to dry…

Selected works at the Saatchi Gallery