Master Class: Chila Kumari Singh Burman

An artist-led professional development programme for eight UK-based, early-career artists, Master Class includes talks given by guest tutors, which are open to the public.

A pioneer of radical feminist practice in the UK, Chila Kumari Singh Burman offers insight into her unique approach, which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. Working across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film, she continually seeks to break stereotypes and emancipate the image of women, and often uses self-portraiture as a tool of empowerment and self-determination. A key figure in the British Black Arts movement in the 1980s, Burman remains rooted in her understanding of the diverse nature of culture.

Doors open from 6:30pm. Talk from 7pm-8:30pm.

Biography
Born in Bootle, to Punjabi-Hindu parents, she attended Southport College of Art, Leeds Polytechnic and the Slade School of Fine Art. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and Honorary Fellowship from the University of Arts in London. In 2022 she was awarded an MBE for her services to the arts. Burman has exhibited widely with notable solo shows held at the Mansard Gallery, Heal’s London; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), Middlesbrough; Output Gallery, Liverpool; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool and Tate Britain, London. Burman was selected as the fourth artist to complete the Tate Britain Winter Commission in 2020. More recently she has completed high profile light installation projects for Covent Garden’s historic market stall building, Liverpool Town Hall and Blackpool’s Grade II listed Grundy Art Gallery. She recently featured in Sky Arts documentary special Statues Redressed and BBC2 documentary Art That Made Us. She has also completed a number of notable commission pieces for brands including Netflix’s White Tiger campaign and Byredo’s new fragrance Mumbai Noise. She was invited to feature as the special guest artist at The Other Art Fair 2022, and to show at the Royal Academy Summer Show 2021. She co-curated upcoming Tate Modern Lates and was nominated as the Indian Art Fair’s London Ambassador. Her works are held in the public collections of the Arts Council Collection, British Council, Science Museum, Tate Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum and Wellcome Trust in London.