Influential artist serves up ice-cream inspired art at Compton Verney

THE DAUGHTER of an ice-cream seller serves up more than the odd scoop of this influence in her exhibition at Compton Verney.

Chila Kumari Singh Burman is bringing a major new solo exhibition to the art gallery from October covering the themes of Hundu Punjabi identities, feminist thought, Bollywood idols and the blending of popular culture and high art.

Burman is considered one of the most exciting, influential and talked about artists of her time and was selected as one of the BBC’s 100 most influential women in 2023.

Her exhibition will fill a suite of galleries at Compton Verney and will feature work in every media Burman has used during her 40 year career including drawing, printmaking, collage, painting, sculpture, installation and film.

It comes off the back of her critically-acclaimed commission at Tate Britain in 2020.

Burman’s upbringing is a central influence on her work, incorporating the working-class environment of Merseyside’s Bootle and the rich Punjabi-Hindu culture of her parents. Her father, both a tailor and a magician by profession in India, became an ice-cream seller when the family arrived in the UK, and even sold ice creams on Freshfields beach to Sir John Moores, father of Compton Verney’s founder Sir Peter Moores.

Her family’s ice cream business has been a consistent subject for Burman and her collage-clad Dad’s Ice Cream Van (2022) will be displayed outside in the grounds. This features another of Burman’s important motifs – a tiger – rendered in neon on the roof.

Visitors can see ice cream as a recurring theme across the decades from Burman’s Ice Cream Vans (1984) depicted in muted earthy tones, to the busy colours of the mixed media works Tattooed in Places You’d Love to Lick (1990s) and Rage and Treats (2006), to the mix of the two with black and white photographs and vibrant blue ink in Our dad the magician eating a lightbulb (2021).

Burman said: “My dad sold ice cream for 40 years on Freshfields Beach near Liverpool, where he met and became friends with John Moores, so on a personal note it’s fantastic to be able to continue the family connection by showing my work at Compton Verney, which was founded by John’s son Peter Moores.

“Compton Verney is seriously on the map now, with recent excellent reviews in the Financial Times and the Observer, and I am thrilled to be having a major solo show as part of their 20th anniversary programme.”

Chila Kumari Singh Burman: Spectacular Diversions runs from October 26 to March 1.