Department: Tate Modern Curatorial
Host: Nada Raza, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern
To inform her artistic practice, Kamini’s focus during her time at Tate was on learning about, and being involved with, the exhibition process at Tate Modern. This included research, process, planning and other exhibition-related activities.
Kamini conducted collection research for the Bhupen Khakhar exhibition You Can’t Please All (2016), particularly around gender issues and women artists in Baroda. A short essay written by Kamini about the painting You Can’t Please All (1981) appeared in the Spring 2015 edition of Tate Etc.
Kamini also undertook research on potential artworks for priority international acquisitions. She participated in regular curatorial, exhibition implementation and planning meetings at Tate Modern, as well as wider Tate meetings where decisions are made relating to curatorial strategy and future activities.
Kamini gave a seminar about her the curatorial work she carried out at the Jehangir Nicholson Collection, including its role in preserving Indian modernism and how the organisation connects with its audience.
Kamini Sawhney taking a final look at the exhibition Outside In: Meera Mukherjee and Jaidev Baghel (2024) before its opening at Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore (MAP). Photo courtesy MAP.
Further collaboration with Tate
2015
Howard Hodgkin: Paintings 1984–2015
The relationship established with Kamini Sawhney through her Fellowship led to Tate’s first exhibition collaboration with an Indian museum.
Howard Hodgkin: Paintings 1984-2015 (2015) was an exhibition collaboration between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Tate and the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation with the support of the British Council and Gagosian Gallery.
Kamini played a pivotal role managing the delivery of the project at her institution in a remarkably short timeframe, enabling trust and confidence between the institutional partners.
Biography
Kamini Sawhney is a museum professional with over 14 years of experience in the field. She is the first Indian elected to the Board of CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) in 2022, and aims to amplify the views and challenges of the global South through this forum.
Until April 2024 she led the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), a new Museum in India’s tech capital – Bangalore. As its founding Director, she helped shape a vision for MAP that sought to democratise art through an accessible, inclusive space that welcomes everyone.
Kamini spearheaded the earlier launch of MAP as a digital first museum in December 2020, at the height of the pandemic, enabling MAP to connect with audiences across the world and showcase its collection through a series of online exhibitions, learning and outreach.
In an earlier role she was the head of the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation at the CSMVS, Mumbai, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum. Bringing institutions together in collaborative projects has been one of her special skills enabling audiences in India experience international exhibitions presented in collaboration with Tate, London, Foam, Amsterdam, Duke University, Durham and the British Museum, London.