Born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Sonia Mehra Chawla received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in 2001, and Masters Degree in Fine Arts in 2004 from College of Art, New Delhi, India. Sonia's works are an ongoing debate between the individual and the constantly changing urban locations. Her works deal with ideas of emergence, fragility, transience, decadence and dissolution. The forms carry within themselves the vitality of the living and the vulnerability of decay. Destruction and evolution are the two conceptual devices that Sonia uses in her works to exemplify her visual concerns. And even though she provides an apocalyptic view of mindless urbanization, the works strike a positive note by investing energies in articulating the concept of genesis, growth, existence and survival, an eternal process she ceaselessly stresses on. Her works span across several media like photography, painting, fine art printmaking, video and installation.
Visual artist & researcher
Fellow, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany. Art, Science & Business Program
Creative Scotland and Marine Scotland Fellowship Grantee 2018-21
Khoj International Artists Association & Wellcome Trust UK/ DBT India Fellow for Art & Science 2017-19
British Council India and Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) Scholar to the United Kingdom 2014-15