Amit Ambalal was born in 1943 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. A self-taught artist, he qualified in Arts, Commerce and Law before joining the family business. He left the business in 1977 and took up painting full-time in 1979. During his early artistic development, he studied under the Gujarati artist Chhaganlal Jadav.

Working primarily in watercolour, Ambalal developed a distinctive visual language shaped by the Nathdwara devotional tradition and his observations of everyday life. His paintings bring together gods, animals, human figures and scenes of ordinary experience, often rendered with wit, satire and a theatrical sense of drama. His use of luminous colour and transparent washes contributes to the characteristic vitality of his work.

A recurring feature of his practice is the playful relationship he creates between the sacred and the everyday. Mythological and celestial figures appear alongside scenes of human life, allowing the visual vocabulary of Indian devotional painting to intersect with humour, social observation and contemporary irony. His sustained engagement with Nathdwara painting also extended into historical research and documentation, culminating in his book Krishna as Shrinathji: Rajasthani Paintings from Nathdwara, published in 1987.

Ambalal held his first solo exhibition at the Hutheesing Visual Arts Centre, Ahmedabad, in 1980, and has since exhibited extensively in India and abroad, with more than 40 solo exhibitions of paintings and sculptures. He lives and works in Ahmedabad.