Mayur Vayeda
Born 1992, Ganjad, India
Lives and works in Ganjad

Tushar Vayeda
Born 1987, Ganjad, India
Lives and works in Ganjad
 

Mayur and Tushar Vayeda are brothers who proudly belong to the indigenous Warli people of Ganjad, Maharashtra, India. While they learnt the ancient practices of Warli painting from a young age through family members, they gave up other career prospects to explore, document and share their culture. They seek to explore new possibility for the historically coded tradition of Warli art — to ‘move Warli tradition forward, without diluting its essence’ — while maintaining cultural protocols and being aware of its vulnerabilities today.

For APT10, the Vayeda brothers’ recent painting projects document Warli narratives on an unprecedented scale and level of detail, translating it for new contexts and social conditions. In two series — ‘Dhartari: The creation of the world’ and ‘Disappearing spirits and childhood memories’, both 2021 — they seek to share some of these important historical narratives and explain them in their own way.