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 her
husband, composer Francis Grier. This was broadcast as ‘The
Cry of Mary’, in December 1992. Other collaborations with
her husband included painting for ‘The Ascension Sequence’
and ‘Elegy’. She then took a break from her professional
artistic career to raise her young family and 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 child psychotherapist in London.
Her paintings are in collections in India, England and
Germany.
EXHIBITIONS 2008 – 2009
▪ May 2008: Spring Show, The Gallery @ Willesden Green.
▪ September – October 2008: Indian Inspirations, The Bhavan
Centre, West Kensington, London SW14.
▪ November 2008: Eaton Terrace Gallery, Eaton Terrace,
Belgravia, London SW1.
▪ December 2008: Pavillion de L’Art Contemporain, Rue de
Londres, Paris.
▪ March 2009: Caroussel du Louvre, Paris.