Having begun my journey in the arts from age four, misdiagnosed with diphtheria and confined to a hospital bed in a remote small town in Bihar, India, it was my dream to make art. When I lost my father in my teens, it was up to me to support my family with a very young brother and a stay at home mother. While working as a publicity personnel writing press releases, in the Indian Railways, I completed undergraduate studies from Calcutta University with Honors in English. I qualified for an academic scholarship at a New York University. When things stabilized a little, I took a leap of faith and came to the US to pursue graduate studies. I joined the Advertising industry in NYC as an art director since that was the next best thing that I could do to sustain myself and stay in touch with creativity. After twenty some years in the New York ad industry, I turned to teaching and art therapy since 2001. I taught Advertising Design at the College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ and also practiced Art therapy with autistic children at the Morris Union Jointure Commission, Warren, NJ.
I embraced fine arts as a second lease on life here in the US far from my birth city of Kolkata in India. Ever since, my works have shown at the Newark Museum (NJ), The Royal Scottish Academy, Tate (UK) Mumbai Museum (India) Contemporary Art Museum S. Korea, Torpedo Art Factory, Monmouth Museum (NJ) Haggin Museum (CA), Lalit Kala Academy (India), Feminist Art Project, Goggleworks, Prince Street Gallery, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NYC etc. A founder member of SIPMA Contemporary, I curated a number of exhibits with an emphasis on inter-disciplinary art. I collaborated in experimental dance/art at Swarthmore College and performance art at the Soho 20 gallery, NYC.
Statement:
My work addresses the tension between iconic unity and digital fuzziness, between the uncontaminated original and its inevitable decay, between recognizability and facelessness, between personal and depersonalized identity through substitution, mediation and commoditization.
Drawing from mythology, politics, pop culture, ads, signage, my works at the base of it, is simply a way to emulate the process of materialization of a thought or imagination. It bears within it clues of transformation and morphing.
Publication:
“Stories We Tell” and “Voices” by Women’s Caucus for Art,
The Feminist Art Project
http://feministartproject.rutgers.edu/home/
Papers
Towards Transnational Feminism in the Arts,
College Arts Conference
2022
Abington Art Center, Philadelphia, “Fizzy Dreams”
Capital Hill Art League, “Fire Breathing Dragon
Freida Community, “Gravity of Grassroots”
2020
Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, October 2020
2019
October Residency at Rooster GNN, Madrid, Spain
November Noyes Museum, NJ
2018
June 2 Viewpoints 2018, Studio Montclair, NJ
Curator: Gary Garrido Schneider, Executive Director of
Grounds for Sculpture, NJ
May 17 Depicting Her Essence @ Haggin Museum, CA
May 12 Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition 2018, Brooklyn, NY
Curator: Carmen Hermo, the Brooklyn Museum’s Assistant Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
March 17 Banana Factory, January
2018 – 19 Professional Artists’ Exhibit, The Mainline Art Center, PA
juror: Pamela Regan, Owner of Bluestone Fine Art Gallery, PA
2017
December “The Second Skin”, The Mainline Art Center, PA, juror
juror: Paula Jackson, Owner of Beauty Art Gallery in Newtown Square, PA
April “Eye for an Eye”, Solo show at Straube Art Center, NJ
January “Visions 2017: Food for Thought” Darrell E. Sechrest Art Gallery, NC
May ” Please Don’t Burst My Bubble?!” Contemporary Art Museum of So. Korea
2016
August: “Second Language”, curated by Dr. Susan Isaacs
@ Da Vinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia
July, “Love Is…” at Alfa Art Gallery, NJ
May, “Words + Text + Numbers” @ St. Louis Artists’ Guild, curator: Joel Ross
March, Hillyer Art Space, DC, “Typecast“, curator: Javis DuBoise
Feb., 2016 Augusta Savage Gallery, “ I Breathe With You”, MA
2015
Dec., 2015 Torpedo Art Factory, Printed Matter, juror: Gretchen Schermerhorn
Nov., 2015 Royal Scottish Academy, UK
June, 2015 Monmouth Museum, NJ
June, 2015 Art Walk, The Art Factory, NJ
May 2015 Alfa Art Gallery, NJ
May, 2015 Curator: “I Live Here Now”, Goggleworks, PA,
May, 2015 Telling Stories, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, PA
Apr, 2015 image + word, Chandler Gallery, Cambridge, MA
April, 2015 Chandler Gallery, “Image + Word”
curator, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cambridge, MA
Jan, 2015 Pliades Gallery, curator, Ellen Bradshaw, NY, NY
2014
Dec, 2014 Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Jan, 2015 Pliades Gallery, NY, N
Nov, 2014 Corporate Art India, Exhibit
Mumbai Museum, India
Oct, 2014 Artist of the Month
Arts Guild New Jersey
Oct, 2014 Curator: “I Live Here” – a SIPMAjuried’2014 Show
The Harold B. Lemmerman GallerySep, 2014 Nexus Juried 2014
Arts Guild New Jersey
“Secrets” at Goggleworks PA,
Asia Arts Initiatives, Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA
Juried Union Street Gallery, Who We Aren’t, Chicago, IL
Juried 2014 at the Prince Street Gallery, Chelsea, NYC
Juried 2014 at the Monmouth Museum, NJ
“Art Connection 10” at George Segal Gallery, Montclair, NJ
“One”, Manhattan Graphics Center, NYC
“Confluence 14”, New Delhi, India
“Paint Your Pain”, Atlantic Health Care, Summit, NJ
“DAY BY DAY 2”, Arts Guild New Jersey
2013
Mehu Gallery, on 100th street and Central Park West
School of Visual Arts, 209 E 23rd St, New York, NY
Kiernan Gallery, 23 W Washington St Lexington, VA 24450
Aferro Gallery Auction, 2013
“Strong Women”, Jewish Museum of NJ
“Sounding Off” exhibition being curated by Jerry Gant at WBGO Jazz Station, NJ
“Paint Your Pain”, Atlantic Health Care, Summit, NJ
“Things People Do”, Watchung, NJ
PARALLEL CITIES – DELHI 2013
interventions in public spaces curate by Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias
2012
Solo Show Gallery Art Eterne, New Delhi 2012
Atlantic Health Care, Summit 2012
Religare Gallery, Delhi 2012
Spring Art Festival, UMDNJ 2012
Lalit Kala Academy, Delhi, Confluence 2012
Soho 20, The Black Dress, performing Art, Sept. 20 th 2012
Aferro Gallery Auction, 2012
City Without Walls, 2012
Participant at the Die BAGL-Berlin Artists Going Live EAGL-European Artists Going Live
gemeinnützige UG (haftungsbeschränkt), 2012
Dino Eli Gallery, Lower East Side, NYC
India Habitat Center, New Delhi and
Berlin Artists Going Live, Berlin, Germany
Paint Your Pain, an Atlantic Health Care initiative, NJ
The Female Eye, Brennan Gallery, NJ
The Strong Women Show, NSA, NJ
2011
Masks , Torpedo Art Factory DC, curate by Brittany Lawrence Yam is the Director of Project 4 Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Myriad Self , Thomas Werner Gallery, Chelsea, NY, curate by Farhana Aktar
2008
Icons , a solo exhibition of paintings inspired by mythology and symbolism
Myths and Realities Chelsea Gallery, NYC, June 2008
Luminous Flux Chelsea Gallery, NYC, July 2008
Humanitus Chelsea Gallery, NYC, October 2000
