Powerful in the everyday: South Asian women artists Bharti Kher, Shivani Aggarwal and Remen Chopra impress on the global stage

Gendered themes in art are important, especially in a country where the goddess is worshipped but misogyny is rampant. Until the early 20th century, the role of women in arts was ‘episodic’, due to their social status and the inequality between the sexes. But in the last few decades especially, their under-representation has been challenged. The sheer number of women in the arts has increased globally; in Kurt Beers’ publication, 100 Artists of the Future, 47 are women.

Last month, a suite of leading South Asian women artists, including Arpita Singh, Nalini Malani, Shilpa Gupta and Anju Dodiya, showcased their work at the debut Frieze Seoul exhibition. In London, at the Design Festival, Indian diasporic artists and textile designers, Zakee Shariff and Asha Vaidyanath, unveiled work that explored healing, spirituality, and nature. This month, three new solo exhibitions caught our attention — where memories and the environment are an overarching theme, and where the idea of the matrilineal home becomes a leitmotif in their history,…