CHARTING HER OWN PATH

In Bahaar Dhawan Rohatgi's hands, art is not confined to a canvas. It spills and flows into architecture, furniture, painting, sculpture and spaces

- By SHELLY ANAND

For as long as she can remember, Bahaar Dhawan Rohatgi has been creatively inclined. Yet her journey into the world of design and art was anything but conventional. A trained lawyer who once thrived in the high-pressure world of litigation, she admits she has lived a “double life”. “I was a lawyer by day, artist by night,” she says. “When everybody slept, I painted.”

Her practice thrived, so did her creative restlessness. The balancing act lasted until art started calling louder than the courtroom. Her works began entering collections across India and abroad, including those of the President of India’s office and the royal family of Abu Dhabi. That was when she knew: art wasn’t her parallel path anymore, it was her centre. Today, Bahaar, whose home base is Delhi, is more than an artist. She is a designer, a dreamer, and a creator of layered spaces that blur the lines between function and feeling.

Art that refuses to be confined