And when she roared, the universe quaked

Shakuntala Kulkarni addresses certain pressing feminist issues through her 2007 series of women-centric paintings. The artist is alluding to the ability of women to free themselves from the shackles of society and its expectations. In Kulkarni’s world as depicted in this series, woman are powerful warriors in charge of their own destiny.

Shakuntala Kulkarni started off as an abstract expressionist artist before moving towards the figurative. (Learn to decode common art terms here.) Today, she has moved beyond canvases and into real-time/space with installation art; her work was part of the India Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2019. Kulkarni’s colour palette comprises mostly of tones of greys and browns, as she believes they perfectly represent her somber themes and figurative forms. Apart from painting, the artist is also interested in theater and has worked closely with filmmaker and actor Amol Palekar and dramatist Satyadev Dubey. Kulkarni has extensively exhibited her works in renowned institutions all across India, and she currently lives and works in Mumbai.