MENU
MENU
June 19 – August 1, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, June 19, 6-8 PM
In-person Artist Talk: Friday, July 10, 6:30 PM
Recently, I’ve been exploring stills from Indian cinema. This has been inspired by my late grandfather, my ajju, who was an artist, journalist and screenwriter for Bollywood in India during the 80’s and 90’s. Our yearly visits across the globe were always marked by talking about creating, looking and making. My grandfather recognized my affinity towards artmaking from an early age and encouraged me to pursue it seriously. So this exploration is an homage and memorial to him. I still remember the way that he talked passionately about how to light and arrange objects. He made the act of looking come alive for me. Growing up in America, I never watched Indian movies due to a strong language barrier–the language of my family was different than the one spoken in movies. Never having watched the movies my ajju worked on, I began watching them on youtube decades after his death– a very surreal experience that poked at the illusions of time, technology, language and distance. This work became a visual exploration of the work of my grandfather and seeing the world through his eyes.
Painting, a language unto itself, becomes a way to speak all the incommunicable things found in these films and photographs that belong to a certain place and time. And in painting them, they become mine.
I relay on a visual landscape built from pattern, shape and color as
tools to express something universal, something so big and
unexplainable I can’t seem to reach it with words. As hard as I try
words fall short. It is in the act of painting that I find the language I
need to express concepts rooted in both the physical and spiritual
realms.
My process is akin to putting a puzzle together. There are so many
individual parts that need to work together to create something
bigger than themselves. When I begin a painting I can not see the
finished work in my mind and may only have a vague idea as to
where I am going. I proceed one step at a time. First I focus on the
overall compassion before narrowing my vision to the individual parts.
It is a journey of the unexpected. It’s the not knowing that keeps the
process a magical experience.
Using the figure as a locus,my paintings investigate the complexity of relationships and the range of human emotion,delving into oppression,conflict and violence. The work chronicles a struggle which embraces despair,moves through the anger and ultimately arrives at revelation,proving that despite our fragility and vulnerability,we are capable of great courage and strength.
Fueled by my own journey to overcome obstacles,the work is rich with symbolism and layered with personal history.Loose gestural strokes first define representational forms. Surfaces are energized and agitated,creating interaction and dialogue. Some areas become more rendered,providing insight,while others are obscured. The current series is very large,making my practice highly physical as I interact with the work, and affording me a great sense of freedom.
