Parampara Portraits, curated by Shuma Pal and Meg Lewis-Crosby, launches the SHISHA Parampara solo exhibitions series in collaboration with Tameside Museums & Galleries. Parampara in Sanskrit means to follow from one to another in a kind of chain reaction, as in teaching and learning across generations; not always via smooth transitions.

J Chuhan is one of the leading British painters of Asian descent. In January 2003 she was commissioned to paint portraits of leading British South Asians. Parampara Portraits presents a unique and unprecedented body of material, towards greater inclusion of the British South Asian experience in long-term cultural resources.

The exhibition promotes new perceptions of British South Asians who represent intercultural and ground-breaking contributions in a range of professions, and are acclaimed as positive role models providing motivation and inspiration for others. The common features for achievement are linked to migrant roots, cultural and social support systems, entrepreneurial work ethos and ambition to succeed against any odds.

Chuhan’s work is part of the shift away from stereotypes to more informed images, towards art and people being accepted on their own terms in relation to the interplay between commonality and the specifics of personality, history and experience. The concept of celebrity is extended from the idea of fame to embrace celebrities in non-public fields from different walks of life, reflecting gender and age mix. The work includes portraits of:

*Shujat Ali
Chief Executive, Asian Sound Radio

*Yasmin Alibhai-Brown MBE
Journalist, The Independent newspaper

*Mina Anwar
TV actress – Thin Blue Line

*Nighat and Rafique Awan
Owners of Shere Khan Restaurants chain

*Dipak Chauhan OBE
Community campaigner

*Dr Aneez Esmail
Doctor/lecturer, race equality campaigner
senior advisor on the Shipman case

*Shobna Gulati
TV actress – Coronation Street

*Fareda Khan
Deputy Director of SHISHA

*Alnoor Mitha
Director of SHISHA

*Jimmy Mistry
Film actor – East is East, The Guru

*Meena Pathak OBE
Director of Patak’s Foods

*So Rahman
Granada TV News presenter

*Sunetra Sarker
TV actress – Brookside

*Baroness Pola Uddin
Politician, House of Lords

Portrait painting has historically been used to depict notions of celebrity, as a pictorial study of physiognomy and as an expression of social and political position. The idea of the British/South Asian character has changed, with a growing sense of confidence and integration in many areas of life. However, there are few paintings of people from South Asia and its’ diaspora within Western art collections, despite the prominence of this diaspora within British culture as a whole.

To be depicted in a painting is a unique expression cementing in a permanent way the image of that person. The portrait is located within a specific creative vision and language, particular to that artist and the cultural context of the time. Painting is linked for Chuhan to the value of observation and exploration of an inner life. Small and large scale works on canvas depict people in a studio setting or typical personal and working environments, evoking an imaginative interpretation of the private individual. Chuhan’s art encompasses the confluence of Asian and Western art history and contemporary developments, highly relevant to the cross-cultural make-up of the sitters in Parampara Portraits.

The paintings will be available for inclusion in public and private art collections to thereby form part of a long-term legacy and expression of British/South Asian achievements.

ABOUT J CHUHAN

J Chuhan was born in Punjab, and trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She is a practising artist, and Professor of International Art at Liverpool John Moores University. Her work has been exhibited in Sweden, Italy, Belgium, and in the UK at venues including Tate Liverpool, Barbican Centre (London), Arnolfini (Bristol), Ikon (Birmingham). Recent work was presented in 'A long way from home' Solo Exhibition at The Lowry, 2002-03. She co-curated and contributed as an artist to Lines of Desire: International Drawing Exhibition, tour including Pitshanger Manor Gallery, London 1998-99. She co-edited and contributed as a writer and artist to Responses – Intercultural Drawing Practice book, published by CAIR 2001, and is the author of a chapter on her art practice in Beyond Frontiers published by Saffron Books 2001. Her paintings are held in collections in India, USA, and in the UK including the Arts Council Collection, University of Liverpool Art Collection, Usher Gallery (Lincoln), Cartwright Hall (Bradford).

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