Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Updated 1:02 PM ET, Thu January 17, 2013

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Bharti Kher is a British artist of Indian origins. Her multi-disciplinary works have been exhibited all over the world including London's Saatchi Gallery and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Bharti Kher: From London to New Delhi – Bharti Kher is a British artist of Indian origins. Her multi-disciplinary works have been exhibited all over the world including London's Saatchi Gallery and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

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Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Kher was born in 1969 and grew up in London with her parents, who migrated to the UK from India.

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Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Shortly after arriving in India she fell in love with her husband, Subodh Gupta. Gupta is also a well-known artist -- here he stands by his artwork at Frieze Art Fair in 2005.

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Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

In 2006, Kher became an internationally recognized artist after exhibiting her life-size sculpture of an elephant entitled "The Skin Speaks a Language Not It's Own."

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Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Kher is well-known for using bindis in her work, like in this work "The Nemesis of Nations" (2008). She is attracted to their cultural significance -- a sign of marriage as well as a symbolic third eye that "forges a link between the real and the spiritual worlds."

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Kher admits to being inspired by the macabre and loves the idea of combining it with traditional beauty. In her "Solarum Series"<em> </em>(2007), her trees have autumnal leaves, which upon closer inspection are sculpted animal heads.

Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Kher admits to being inspired by the macabre and loves the idea of combining it with traditional beauty. In her "Solarum Series" (2007), her trees have autumnal leaves, which upon closer inspection are sculpted animal heads.

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In 2010, Kher participated in a major exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery called The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today. Her fiberglass sculpture, "An Absence of Assignable Cause" (2007) is an enormous heart, meant to belong to a blue whale, decorated with bindis.

Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Bharti Kher – In 2010, Kher participated in a major exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery called The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today. Her fiberglass sculpture, "An Absence of Assignable Cause" (2007) is an enormous heart, meant to belong to a blue whale, decorated with bindis.

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"Choleric, Phlegmatic, Melancholy, Sanguine" (2009-2010) is a bronze sculpture inspired by the multi-limbed Hindu goddess Kali, who is associated with empowerment and conquering evil.

Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Bharti Kher – "Choleric, Phlegmatic, Melancholy, Sanguine" (2009-2010) is a bronze sculpture inspired by the multi-limbed Hindu goddess Kali, who is associated with empowerment and conquering evil.

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"Reveal the Secrets That You Seek" (2011) is an installation of 27 shattered mirrors covered in a pattern of bindis. She invites the viewer to become enveloped in their reflection and in turn become part of the work itself.

Photos: Bharti Kher: British-born artist leading India's creative charge

Bharti Kher – "Reveal the Secrets That You Seek" (2011) is an installation of 27 shattered mirrors covered in a pattern of bindis. She invites the viewer to become enveloped in their reflection and in turn become part of the work itself.

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