What's Being Alive, 2024

Based in Delhi, Chhavi Aggarwal's practice is shaped by an ongoing inquiry into identity, body politics, and the social construction of beauty. This duality—the vulnerability of personal experience and the weight of societal judgment—forms the foundation of her artistic inquiry. Her work meditates on the coexistence and conflict between selfhood and scrutiny, exploring how internalized beauty standards transform our relationship with our own bodies while redefining our sense of worth and belonging.

At the heart of Aggarwal's practice lies the female form—rendered in unconventional and symbolic ways, an intuitive vehicle through which she translates personal vulnerability into visual narrative. Working across lithography, serigraphy, relief printing, acrylic painting, oil pastels, and mixed media, she continually pushes the expressive potential of recurring visual metaphors—chessboards, surveillance cameras, intrusive hands—viewing each work as an evolving negotiation between the self and the systems that observe it. In her ongoing series Standard Beauty: A Myth, Aggarwal focuses on the psychological and emotional impact of body shaming and unrealistic beauty ideals, seeking new ways to represent the tension between conformity and authenticity. Through her art, she invites viewers to pause and reconsider their relationship with beauty—whether inherited or imposed—and the fragile self-worth that endures beneath it.

Aggarwal completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from College of Art, Delhi. Her exhibitions include the Yearly Annual Exhibition, College of Art, Delhi (2021–2025), Common Ground: A Group Show, presented by the Amar Nath Sehgal Private Collection Young Artist's Program (2025), and the 2nd Edition Art Summit, College Mats (2026). Her international exhibitions include the XVI Graphic Art Biennial (Dry Point), Uzice, Serbia (2023), and Khwab-E-Mussawiri, Season 2, Picasso Gallery, Dubai (2025).