Kajal Chauhan - Ember & Flow

"India Contemporary curated by Veer Hooda" presents a rare opportunity for collectors and art lovers in Europe to acquire original works by highly established Indian contemporary artists, and to connect with one of the most vibrant and fast-growing art markets in the world.

India Contemporary is a curated initiative that brings leading Indian contemporary artists directly to European collectors. Each artist is selected personally by Veer Hooda for artistic depth, originality and long-term relevance, and each work is an original, sourced from the artist's own studio and shipped with full documentation. The programme exists because the distance between the Indian studio and the European wall has, until now, been the main thing standing between these artists and the collectors who would want them. India Contemporary closes that distance: no intermediary market, no re-sale mark-up, direct access at an early stage.

India's contemporary art scene is in an exceptional moment - dynamic, intellectual, many-voiced, and growing quickly in both global visibility and investment value. With rising interest from international collectors and institutions, this is a compelling time for European collectors to engage with Indian contemporary art at a pivotal stage of its ascent.

The works are offered exclusively by auction on Catawiki.

The works are curated in Vienna by Vijit Veer Hooda and shipped to you directly from the artist's studio in India. Buyers in the EU enjoy 0% customs duty on original works of art imported from India.

About the Artist: Kajal Chauhan

Kajal Chauhan (b. 21 March 1997, Etah, Uttar Pradesh) lives and works in Delhi, where she paints from a studio in Chhatarpur. She read English Honours and holds a Master's degree in Sociology. Instagram: @studio.kajalchauhan

Artistic vision

In her own words: "My practice is an ongoing exploration of emotion, perception, and the ways in which we experience the world around us. I do not work within a single visual language; some ideas naturally find their form through abstraction, while others emerge through figures, objects, patterns, or more recognisable imagery.

I am deeply drawn to the relationship between colour, movement, texture, and memory. Much of my work begins with an instinctive response rather than a fixed image, and develops through a process of layering, observing, and allowing the painting to reveal its own direction.

At the centre of my practice is a personal interest in translating intangible experiences into something visual - feelings, energies, relationships, and moments that are often difficult to articulate. Each work becomes a record of that process: intuitive, evolving, and deeply connected to the way I see and experience life."

That refusal to settle into one language is the thing to look at first. Chauhan moves between expressive figuration and near-total abstraction from one canvas to the next, and the three works offered here sit at different points along that line: a seated portrait built from flat architectural fields, a pair of elongated figures dissolving into ribboned colour, and an abstraction in which the figure has gone entirely and only the movement is left.

What holds them together is a palette and a surface rather than a subject. She works in a narrow register of oxide reds, umbers, sand and charcoal, laid on dry and matte so the weave of the canvas stays legible through the paint, and she draws into the colour with fine pale lines that behave more like handwriting than contour. The forms are simplified to the point of sign - a head becomes an oval, an arm a single ribboned band - and the emotional weight is carried by scale, interval and the pressure of the mark rather than by expression or detail.

Her subject, consistently, is the interior life: becoming, connection, the tension between holding on and letting go. She paints these as presences rather than narratives, and leaves the reading open.

About the Artwork

Artist: Kajal Chauhan
Name: Ember & Flow
Year: 2026
Size: 92 x 122 cm
Technique: Mixed media on canvas

An abstraction in a narrow band of heat. A dark umber mass occupies the upper field and softens downward into rust, ochre and a pale sand that opens across the lower right. Nothing in it is drawn as an object: the forms are broad sweeps laid on with a dry brush, one curve rising from the left and turning over on itself, another settling flat along the bottom edge like ground.

Over this Chauhan draws in fine cream and white line - long looping arcs, some single, some running in parallel bands of three or four, crossing the colour without following its edges. They read as handwriting rather than contour, and they are what gives the picture its direction: the eye follows the lines through the heat rather than around the shapes.

The paint is matte and thin in places, and the canvas weave is visible through the darker passages, which is where the granular, ember-like texture in the upper field comes from.

In her own words: "I created 'Ember & Flow' as an exploration of energy in motion - the tension between holding on and allowing things to unfold. The warmth of the ember tones reflects an inner intensity, while the flowing forms speak to my attempt to surrender to change rather than control it."

Condition: excellent. The surface carries the brush texture normal to the medium.
Signature: hand signed by the artist on the back, lower left corner. The title, medium and dimensions are inscribed there in the artist's hand alongside the signature.
Sold unframed, on a stretcher; shipped rolled.

About Veer Hooda - ig: @vi_hov

Veer Hooda is an Indo-European (Austrian) contemporary artist based in Vienna, whose practice is shaped by a deep connection to his Indian roots and a great love for his now home, Europe.

Veer Hooda has exhibited across some of the top galleries and exhibitions in the world and recently finished his sold-out show at Art Basel Miami 2025. This year he will be exhibiting at, among others, the Venice Biennale 2026 and ArtExpo New York 2026, in multiple exhibitions across Europe and Austria, and returning to Art Basel Miami at the end of the year.

While his own work reflects a strong conceptual and material sensibility developed over years of creative and professional experience, Hooda is equally driven by a clear mission: to make outstanding Indian artistic talent more visible and accessible within the European art market. Positioned between India and Europe, he acts as a cultural bridge, offering early access to artists and narratives that are already gaining significant international recognition - a distinct insider perspective at a pivotal moment for Indian contemporary art.

Signed and authenticity: The work is hand signed by the artist, and a signed Certificate of Authenticity is provided with every work by India Contemporary by Vijit Veer Hooda.

Shipped from: This work is shipped from India and is fully insured on its way to the buyer.

Packaging & insurance: The painting is packaged professionally and shipped rolled in a tube. It arrives unstretched and will need to be restretched onto a frame on arrival - any framer will do this routinely.

Customs and duties: Import duty on original works of art is 0% in most EU countries. Some countries apply a reduced import VAT of 5-12% and/or a small clearance fee, payable by the buyer before delivery and in most cases settled online with the delivery company in a few minutes. We accompany the buyer through every step, from collection to the door, and are on hand for anything the process needs.