Bio
Mrs. Durga Bai Vyam (born 1974 in the village of Barbaspur, Dindory, M.P.) is one of the most talented artists of Gond art. Durga Bai also enjoys painting folktales because of her grandmother’s stories in her childhood. Her mother taught her the art of Digna, traditional decoration of homes during weddings and festivals at age 6. From plastering the walls with cow dung, to collecting clay of different colours, to painting ~ she enjoyed the process entirely. When the harvest season didn’t end well for Durga and her family, she remembers sitting before the wall engrossed in her floral patterns while her five siblings played. After her marriage to an artist, Durga Bai came to Bhopal and was encouraged to paint by her husband’s family where she perfected her balance of narrative with color and line.
Her career started with the group camp at the Indira Gandhi National Museum at Bhopal in 1996, and since then she has been part of exhibitions and group camps in Bhopal, New Delhi, Dehradun, Mumbai, Indore, Raipur, Frankfurt, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and several others. Over the years she has won the MP State Award, Hasta Shilpa Vikas Nigam Award, Rani Duragawati National Award, Sangeet Kala Kendra Award, International Festival of films on Tribal Art and Culture Award, Indira Gandhi National Award, Katha Chitrakala Award, Aditya Vikram Birla Kalakiran Award, Devi Award, Honours by the Handicraft Development Council, the BolognaRagazzi Award in Italy and the IGNCA Scholarship. Her work has been featured in some brilliant books as well.