A painter by training, Vasudha Thozhur’s vast oeuvre comprises video, digital prints, and pieces incorporating written and spoken text, along with drawings and paintings. She is known for her monumental works that are often soaked in bold hues of red, yellow, and grey. They are laden with poetic metaphors taken from quotidian life and historical narratives, giving voice to the conflicted anxiety of contemporary existence.
In her charged works, Thozhur also touches upon various social taboos including forms of marginalization and subordination. Her socio-politically conscious practice has had her collaborating with Himmat, an activist organization based in Vatva, Ahmedabad. In the after-math of the Gujarat riots of 2002, she began working with female survivors of the carnage, teaching the girls art in a variety of mediums, including painting, silkscreen, photography, video, embroidery, appliqué and batik. She brought together the artistic articulations of the girls alongside her own riveting paintings in response to the troubled political climate in a critically acclaimed exhibition, Beyond Pain: An Afterlife (2013).
Thozhur was born in Mysore city in 1956. She completed her Diploma in Painting from the College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai in 1979 and went on to pursue her post Diploma from the Croydon School of Art and Design in the United Kingdom. Over the years, she has been actively involved in writing, teaching and conducting art workshops and projects, engaging with her immediate social context. Her institutional work has involved being visiting faculty at M.S. University, Baroda; N.I.D., Ahmedabad; and I.I.C.D., Jaipur. She is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Art & Performing Art at Shiv Nadar University in Noida. Thozhur’s work has been shown at numerous prestigious venues around the world including at the Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago; Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; World Social Forum, Nairobi; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Asia Society and Museum, New York; Queens Museum of Art, New York; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; House of World Cultures, Berlin; and National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai.
Thozhur currently lives and works in Noida.