Small Paintings

Book Synopsis: • A monograph on Indian-born British artist Jai Chuhan, whose paintings have been exhibited internationally and are housed in the collections of the Tate, the Arts Council Collection and Cartwright Hall in Bradford• Showcasing Chuhan's new series of paintings for her solo exhibition Small Paintings at Qrystal Partners, London, in 2023• Featuring a foreword by Donald Ryan, curator and co-founder of Qrystal Partners, a space that presents exhibitions, projects and research, and an essay by Hannah Marsh, Assistant Curator of Contemporary British Art at the Tate• The first in the Hurtwood Contemporary Artist Series, these books aim to spotlight a talented and diverse range of artists producing important bodies of work whether they are established or in their early careers

Small Paintings presents the gestural, intimate and hauntingly beautiful paintings by Indian-born British artist Jai Chuhan. The book showcases the art created for her solo exhibition of the same name at Qrystal Partners in London in the summer of 2023. Chuhan often paints lonely figures in indistinct, nebulous rooms in works that explore love and alienation. They evoke psychological tensions between genders, agency and subjection, the familiar and the unreal. Her practice engages deeply with histories of painting as she navigates transculturalism and the female gaze. Chuhan emigrated to London with her family in the late 1960s, where she later studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. Donald Ryan, co-founder of Qrystal Partners, contributes a foreword contextualising the exhibition and delineating Chuhan's key artistic concerns. In her essay, Hannah Marsh, assistant curator of Contemporary British Art at the Tate, ruminates on the idea of being seen, holding space and how Chuhan's art speaks on its own terms.