Hot Flush, 1999
Tina Bopiah is an Indian artist based in Bangalore, whose work navigates the intersections of autobiography and social engagement. Working across painting and mixed media, Bopiah explores identity, gender, culture and lived experience through complex visual language. Drawing on sources as varied as pop culture, news media, biblical narratives and personal memory, her work is both intimate and outward-looking. Initially recognised for her meticulous egg tempera paintings and later for expansive, mixed media compositions. Bopiah’s approach is marked by a distinctively heterodox voice and a sustained commitment to self-expression.
Born in 1943 into a military family, Bopiah spent her childhood moving through cantonment zones across India, absorbing a diversity of landscapes and cultural influences. Particularly formative was her time in Kashmir, prompting her turn towards art. She began working in watercolour on Fabriano paper, developing from early representational imagery into a more experimental practice incorporating materials such as ink, crayon, turmeric and coffee. She spent five years mastering egg tempera, a medium she embraced for its precision, layering and luminous translucency, particularly suited to her autobiographical concerns. Over time, the physical constraints of the medium led her towards larger canvases and a more immediate visual language, incorporating acrylic, paper and thread in bold, often graffiti-like compositions. Across her practice, her work has remained grounded in personal narrative while engaging with broader social observations. Alongside her studio work, Bopiah has also designed and painted theatrical backdrops, notably for productions by Gulzar at the Tata Theatre in 2002.
Bopiah lives and works in Bangalore. She has exhibited widely in India and internationally. Her solo exhibitions include presentations at Art Heritage, New Delhi; Cymroza Gallery, Mumbai; Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai; and Indar Pasricha Fine Art, London. She has been included in group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai; Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi; and Art Heritage, New Delhi. In 2026, she was shortlisted for the National Portrait Gallery’s Artist of the Year. Her work is held in prominent collections, including the Jehangir Nicholson Collection, the Alkazi Collection, the collection of Lady Antonia Fraser, and the Chandigarh Museum of Art.