Dream creature, 2018

Karishma D'Souza  

Karishma D'Souza was born in Mumbai, India, in 1983. She lives and works in Goa.

Karishma D'Souza, an artist of Indian origin, is largely inspired by the cultural and political context she grew up in.

The poetry created by Karishma D'Souza has a lyrical, simple almost naïve form that is saturated with references to often violent political realities. Nothing seems to upset the tranquility of the scenes she paints – however, harmony is only an illusion. The political situation in India to which Karishma D'Souza's paintings make reference is anything but harmonious: the economic and industrial development has accentuated the gap between classes and has even exacerbated social stratification, which was configured and solidified over centuries by the polemic caste system.

Some of Karishma's oldest works were produced in somber tones in order to contradict the forced brilliance of the slogan India Shining. The criticism of this phenomenon becomes subtler in her recent paintings where the soft and peaceful light (as if the light was coming from within) attempts to parody the very notion at the heart of the metaphor.

The political dimension is nevertheless not the only dimension depicted in Karishma D'Souza's paintings. She reveals the political aspect of contemporary reality so that she may sublimate it through her poetic transformation of the world. To arrive at this sublimation, the artist draws inspiration from Sufi poetry (part of Islamic worship) and occidental literary texts that also allow her to return to the heart of it, to the pure beginnings of things, and to the innocence of a gaze. In other words, to what is universal.

This dimension becomes even more obvious if we consider the technique adopted by the artist. Her paintings are halfway between a mystical and poetic vision – and all the while they translate archetypal elements into contemporary visual metaphors. Inspired by Rajasthani miniatures, made with very fine brushes, the artist reinterprets them by enlarging the paintings without loosing the link to the original technique that is as meticulous as it is detailed.