Gayatri Gamuz when asked in an interview about her adopted homeland of the last two decades says, “I feel one with the land in many respects… I don’t pretend to belong here or feel that India is mine. … I am a long time tourist in India, and also on the planet”

Born in Alicante, Spain and living in South India for most of her adult life, she has made a mark as a contemporary artist in India. Her artist name is itself a joining together of her adopted Indian name and her Spanish surname.

She started her art practice in the city of Kochi in South India in the nineties, a period when the contemporary visual art movement was burgeoning in Kerala. Playing a leading role as artist in the Tree Festivals, in contemporary art festivals and in art collectives that happened there in this period, Gayatri was schooled in the vibrant social and political discourse of Kerala.

However it was when Gayatri moved with her family a decade back to the rural areas around Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu and started living on the land that a new found synergy in nature created a pronounced shift in her art as observed by the London based Jana Manuelpillai in a critical text. He comments that Gamuz creates hyperrealist paintings that have an instant comprehensibility to the viewer and are comparable to the succinctness of a Haiku poem.

Gayatri’s works are evocative of the ecological concerns of our times exploring the nature/culture/technology debate and talking about dispossession. . Amrita Gupta Singh, art writer based in Mumbai, reviewing Gayatri’s works says “the cultural duality of being a white Spanish in a post-colonial country, of a split identity, does not appear in her work, evoking a humanist philosophy, despite impositions of geographical boundaries and diverse nationalities…Gayatri speaks intimately of the concerns of the 21st century, of the fragmentation of the human condition. It is the image of a world upside down, dislocated from its moorings, a crisis that waits to be restored.”


 
Solo exhibitions
 
2010    
“6 person show”, 1x1 Gallery, Dubai
2009    
“Gender Genesis Genetics”, Espace Gallery, New Delhi
“India Art Summit” presented by Espace Gallery, New Delhi
“Of the same matter” (solo), Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi, South India
2008    
“Balelatina Hot Art Fair”, Basel, presented by Dukan and Hourdequin Gallery
“Trends and Trivia An Indian Story”, Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong
“Millennium Turks Envisaging Contemporary India”,
Trident Hilton Hotel, New Delhi
“Art and Ecology Presentation”, at the Mohile Parikh Centrefor Visual Arts, Mumbai
“Garibaldi 200 Years”, Museo Storico di Bergamo, Italy,
“Garibaldi 200 Years”, Salon Dorado de la Intendencia
Municipal de Montevideo, Uruguay
2007    
“In a land without trees” (solo), (Oils on linen
and canvas) Hacienda Gallery, Mumbai
“Ten Light Years”, Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi
“She”, India, The Noble Sage Gallery, London
“Maya”, Artworld, Chennai
“Vanity Fair”, Mon Art Gallerie, Kolkota
“Chronicles of the Unspoken” (MOA),
Travancore House Gallery, New Delhi
“Instilling Life”, Curated by Jasmine Shah Varma
Hacienda Gallery, Mumbai
“Does Size Matter?”, Curated by Bhavna Kakar
Art Konsult, New Delhi
“A Slice of Art from India”,
RL Fine Arts, New York
2006    
“Inaugural Show”, Red Wall Gallery,
Hobart, Australia
“London Biennale”, Stables Gallery, London
“Stirring Quartet”, Hacienda Gallery, Mumbai
“In reverse I tell so you understand me” (solo),
(Oils on Canvas) Lila Gallery, Kochi
“In reverse I tell so you understand me” (solo),
Centro Cultural CAM, Orihuela, Spain
2005    
“Chestnut Tree Summer Festival”, Nijmegen,Holland
2004    
“Tenderness in the middle of the rat race”(solo),
(paintings, sculptures) Embassy of India, Berlin
“The Other Within” (solo), (acrylics on canvas) Centro Civico, Besos Mar, Barcelona
2003    
“Open Art Project”, Die Bank, Munich
“Pachamama Celebrates 2053” (Installation)
Mayalokam Art Collective, Kochi
2001    
“Encounter - First Contemporary Art Festival”, Kochi
1999    
“Running Water” (solo), (oils on canvas)
Kashi and Dravidia Art Gallery, Kochi
“Tree Festival Art Exhibition”, Kashi Art Café, Kochi
1998    
Women for Nature Art Camp in the Periyar Tiger Reserve organized by the Forest Department of Kerala
1989-91    
Studies in the Escuela de Cerámica de Manises, Valencia
1986-88    
Studies in the Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Alicante