STATEMENT
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Komal Madar (b.1983) transforms discarded South Asian textiles into sculpture, performance, immersive installations and site-specific interventions. Through sustained material experimentation, she examines the cultural and social lives of materials, challenging their socio-cultural associations while drawing on ritual, memory, spiritual symbolism and embodied labour.
Madar’s practice is grounded in the philosophy of kismet (fate) and chance as both method and material. Her need to make begins with the hunt for materials. She reuses, repurposes and accumulates textiles and found objects from her environment and local ecologies, giving materials with existing histories a second life. Madar deliberately subverts the cultural expectations attached to textiles by intuitively dismantling, manipulating and transforming them through layering, slitting, tearing and burning. Their histories remain present, allowing vulnerability, destruction and repair to coexist while taking on new forms.
References to the body, labour and feminist discourse recur throughout her practice. Her recent work with wearable sculpture and found objects is activated through performance, drawing on her earlier training in Kathak (Indian classical dance), ritual and ancestral knowledge systems.
Madar is increasingly developing interdisciplinary projects that bring together varied material investigations, participation and emerging technologies. She works collaboratively with communities through workshops and participatory projects, where making becomes a space for dialogue, cultural exchange and collective experience.
Photo credit: Simona Navardauskaité
Education
2025 | Liverpool John Moores University, MA Fine Art
2008 | Byam Shaw School of Arts, Post Graduate Diploma, Fine Art, London
2007 | The University Of Reading, BA, Fine Art & English Literature
2003 | Central Saint Martins, Foundation Studies, London
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Solo Shows
2025 | Talisman, Liverpool Independents Biennial, Bridewell Studios & Gallery
2025 | Sari Forest, DoES Liverpool
2025 | Materiality in Motion, Exhibition Research Lab: Snapshot 10: John Lennon Art and Design Building, LJMU
2024 | The Opening: Yoni as a Symbol of Sacredness and Strength, The Glass Pencil Gallery, Stockley Park, Uxbridge
2018 | Visions of Colour: Hyatt Place Hotel, London
Group Exhibitions (selected)
2026 | Runjeet Singh Gallery, Opening Weekend, Warwickshire
2026 | New Art Exchange Gallery, NAE Open 2026, Nottingham
2025 | The Bakery Studios & Gallery, Traces, Liverpool Independents Biennial
2025 | Stable Gallery (St George's Hall), Monuments of Memory, Degree Show, Liverpool
2025 | X gallery, Expand, John Lennon Art and Design Building, Liverpool
2024 | X gallery, Conjure, John Lennon Art and Design Building, Liverpool
2024 | Nippon Gallery, Mumbai, Shenoy Art Foundation, Bengaluru(Bangalore), Monalisa Kalagram, Pune, Miniature Postage Stamp Masterpieces (travelling exhibition, India)
2023 | Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Arachne Press: Ten Years of Book Cover Art, London
2022 | Holy Art Gallery, Ways of Seeing, London
2018 | Church Palace Hotel, Artrooms Roma, Rome
2017 | La Galleria Pall Mall: Royal Arts Prize shortlist, London
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Art Fairs
2027 | Runjeet Singh Gallery, India Art Fair
2026 | Runjeet Singh Gallery, Mumbai Art Fair
2024 | Affordable Art Fair, Hamstead
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Prizes, Awards, Residencies, & Submissions
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2027 | BRIDGE International Residency Programme, New Art Exchange, Bangkok & Nottingham.
In partnership with Creative Migration (East) Foundation, based in Bangkok 1899
2026 | Venice Fellowship Programme: British Pavilion, Decolonising Arts Institute (UAL), 2026, Interview Shortlist.​
2025 | John Moores Painting Prize, Stage 2 selection.​
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2024 | Artist Takeover, Factory International, Interview Shortlist.
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​​Professional Development
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2024 | Indian Mughal miniature painting, Jaipur, teachers: Ajay Sharma and Vinita Sharma (3 months)
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2024 | Indian Mughal Miniature Painting, one-week course with Ajay Sharma, The King's Foundation School of Traditional Arts
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Public Commissions/Projects (selected)
2022 | Homegrown, Feltham Fete, Arts Council England, Creative People and Places, and London Borough of Hounslow
2021 | Love Ealing Love Local, Community Project, England European Regional Development Fund
2019 | Our Hayes Our Heritage Project, Hillingdon Council, London
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Magazines
2025 | Art in Liverpool, Materiality in Motion
2024 | Desi Blitz7
2023 | Vogue India
2023 | Homegrown
2015 | World of Interiors, UK
2015 | House & Garden, UK
2015 | British Vogue
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Published Writings
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Talks
2026 | MA Fine Art Digital (Year 2), Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London