Anjali D’Souza was born and grew up in Kolkata, where she trained at the Government College of Arts and Crafts, completing her Diploma in Fine Art in 1984. In Kolkata, she has exhibited at the College and at the Birla Academy of Arts.
She then went to live and work at Jyoti Sahi’s Art Ashram in Bangalore, South India. She had a solo exhibition in Bangalore, in December 1986, ‘Songs of Union and Separation’, inspired by the songs of Mirabai, (a 12th century Indian woman mystic). In 1987, she was commissioned to do a series of paintings, ‘The Awakening’, for Prabha Tara Womens Institute, in Delhi.
She also developed an interest in the therapeutic functions of art, whilst working in a community for mentally handicapped adults in Bangalore and then at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Delhi. In1988 she came to England to pursue post-graduate studies in Art Therapy and has been living here since.
In 1991/92 she was commissioned by the BBC to paint a series of pictures to accompany music written by the composer Francis Grier. This was broadcast as ‘The Cry of Mary’, in December 1992. Other collaborations included painting for ‘The Ascension Sequence’ and ‘Elegy’. She then took a break from her professional artistic career to pursue her interest and training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the Tavistock Centre, London, graduating with a Masters degree in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in 2007. She now works as an artist and psychotherapist in London.
Her paintings are in collections in India, Australia, England, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore.
Exhibitions include
In London at The Gallery at Willesden Green; The Bhavan Centre, West Kensington; Eaton Terrace Gallery, Belgravia SW1; Bedfordbury Gallery, Covent Garden; Goldsmiths College.
In Paris at Pavillion de L’Art Contemporain, Rue de Londre.
In New York at Reference Gallery, Grand Street.