Opening Event: Thursday April 17, 6pm - 8pm, Harbour House Ground Floor Gallery
Exhibition: Fri April 18 - Sat Aug 2 2025, Harbour House Ground Floor Gallery
Artist in Conversation with Hannah Marsh and Amy Dickson: Sat May 10, 2pm – 3:30pm, Harbour House Ground Floor Gallery & Online
Harbour House is delighted to present Jai Chuhan: Dancer, the first solo exhibition of paintings by Indian born, British artist Jai Chuhan in the South West. Dancer, takes place as Chuhan’s work gains increasing national recognition and is one of five exhibitions featuring Chuhan’s work to open across the UK this spring.
Chuhan’s paintings, which often feature the female figure within room-like spaces, are defined by her distinctive handling of paint and colour, where images are often dismantled and rebuilt, seemingly sculpted and then re-sculpted out of the thick paint. Her approach to colour draws from the Indian Ragas, compositional structures in Indian classical music that evoke emotion or mood. Together, her gestural brush work and distinctive palette lend the female figures she paints an expressive, emotional resonance.
At the heart of the artistic programme at Harbour House is an exploration of the intersection between movement and art, and Jai Chuhan: Dancer explores the theme of dance in Chuhan’s painting in three ways. Throughout her career, Chuhan has collaborated with dancers who are often the sitters for and subjects of her painting, from traditional Indian dancers to pole dancers, she explores dance as a vehicle for self-expression and creative autonomy.
Chuhan has described the act of painting itself as a kind of dance - both the physicality of the act of painting and the dance of the paint on the canvas. In Chuhan’s paintings, the gestural brush work, defined by layers of vibrant colour appears to dance on the canvas, the orchestration of marks and colours creating pictorial spaces and structures, and expressing feelings, the way music does.
Finally, a group of self-portraits examine her identity as an artist, feelings of alienation and belonging and what Chuhan has described as the ‘complex dance of identity’. These paintings merge personal history with the transcultural currents of our time, inspired by her position as an Indian-born British artist.
Chuhan explains:“Dance is a metaphor for our journey through life, where we choreograph our lives and sometimes things don't work out as planned or circumstances change. Postures, gestures and facial expressions of figures are a kind of dance through life, and in this way almost all my paintings that centre on the figure in spaces with an emphasis on movement, stillness and the flux in-between, are exploring a kind of dance.”
Harbour House Director, Amy Dickson explains the importance of the exhibition for the South West: “We are extremely proud to be bringing a solo exhibition of Jai Chuhan’s paintings to the South West for the first time. I have been lucky to enjoy a long relationship with Jai’s work and it is wonderful to see it getting the national and international recognition it deserves. We are delighted to be able to share her incredible paintings with communities here at this moment concurrently with audiences across the country in five exhibitions opening this spring.”
As part of the programme around Jai Chuhan: Dancer, Harbour House will be hosting an Artist in Conversation event on Sat 10 May, with Jai Chuhan and Hannah Marsh: Assistant Curator at the Tate, chaired by Amy Dickson the Director at Harbour House. This will be an opportunity to hear Chuhan discuss her work and the themes in the exhibition, and a chance to ask her questions about her practice. This will be a free, hybrid event, open to everyone who can attend online and in person. There are limited spaces available in person, please book via Eventbrite: Attend online Eventbrite link / Attend In Person Eventbrite link
To celebrate Jai Chuhan: Dancer for Kingsbridge Fair week, we are delighted to be hosting a performance of Mughal Miniatures: The Awakening by Sonia Sabri Company on the bandstand as part of the town celebrations on 19 July at 4:15pm. We will also be holding free Kathak dance workshops led by Sonia Sabri Company for families and children as part of the celebrations. The workshops are FREE but booking is essential via Eventbrite.