Ann Treesa Joy
I consider myself a vagabond, carrying my home with me. My arts practice is part of that home as I attempt to blur the lines between it and my day-to-day life like when I look through my microscope at lichen, make things out of clay, cook, go through my morning routine, persevere through disadvantages and weaknesses. It is my form of communication midst the speechlessness I feel in my attempts to explain that I am beyond my identity. But it also reflects the sincerity I feel in recognizing my existence with equal insignificance as the next person’s. My work is this overlap of daily life and arts practice.I work in series’. I use unwanted fabric, recycled plastic objects, clay, wood, metal, and watercolor: anything I find and have access to. They are sometimes accompanied with performance or digital media. My process is organic. I start with a small premise and then let my body and the work itself take over, flowing with the peace of being in that present moment. This way of working is rooted in meditation, reflection and my love for myself.
Khushboo Gulati
Khushboo Kataria Gulati is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer from Los Angeles & the cosmos. Their creations engage with the journeys of their flesh/spirit, time(less-ness), ancestral art and stories, ritual, dance, flower splendor, the elements, rewriting internal & external narratives, detangling pain, dreams and igniting wonder. They channel through painting, tattooing, graphic design, sensation curation, textiles, installations, and intuitive movement, creating lush worlds around saturated loving, healing and existing.
“Embroidering Flesh2Spirit is a collection of flash sheets, placement visions, and flash design patterns from Khushboo’s tattoo practice. Their practice is rooted in amplifying the autonomy of and connection to our bodies, hearts, and spirits, inviting transformation and deeper self-awareness. Each session acts as a sensorial ceremony to mark the flesh with symbols soaked in intentions and prayer, acting as a powerful tool to reclaim the body, and challenge rigid, fear based projections, expectations, and socializations of our bodies—especially for queer and trans BIPOC.”
An exploration of ritual and performativity, of longing and searching, through my body and through reflections in the most corporeal physical sense.
Menaja Ganesh
My work is an exploration of language, identity, ritual, and belonging through the macro and microcosmic sociopolitical lens of India. My practice involves the critique of hegemonic structures and institutions in my country, and on a more personal level, my relationship to my skin and multiple homelands, through the telling of histories inherited from my family. I combine the curatorial practice of bookmaking, with printmaking, photography, and writing. My practice is, in a sense, rooted in ceremony.
Rupy Tut
Rupy is an Oakland based visual artist working with two unique traditional art forms: Indian miniature painting (an 18th century Indian art form) and calligraphy.
Rupy’s work is particularly remarkable for her strict practice with traditional materials and methods associated with calligraphy and Indian miniature painting. She creates work with intricate brushwork using stone and organic pigments made in her studio. For her work, Rupy uses a two dimensional surface of handmade hemp paper sourced from India and modified in her studio.
Being connected to traditional art making while innovating within its constraints, Rupy reaches back to a visual language that is centuries old but has relevance today. Similarly, her work dissects historical and contemporary narratives to portray the modern mix of influences from both the West and the East. Her collections challenge norms of identity and belonging as well document the richness of her experiences as a first generation Punjabi Sikh immigrant.
Rupy's work with painting and calligraphy also becomes translated into the medium of photography and video. The resulting visual projections are a unique way to experience artwork that is otherwise meant for a smaller frame and intimate viewing.
Ragini Agarwal
Born out of necessity, art is my compass through the unpredictable landscape of my mind. Mental health, body (dis)illusions and self destructive thoughts and behaviours are the focus of my work. I create bold, beautiful images that are reflective of the dark and the light inside each of us. When the mind is in a state where it can only see darkness, the world feeling muted, the body feeling heavy, you have to confront color before you can perceive it. Vibrant colors reflect hopefulness. I do not believe in societal pressures or definitions of beauty, and through my work I am a part of the counterculture redressing this issue. I draw women in all their beautiful forms, shapes, sizes and colors. They are the epitome of creativity. I am woman and this is my journey.
Taz Ahmed
A prolific storyteller in multiple mediums, in 2016, Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed was honored as a White House Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling. She had a monthly column called Radical Love, was a blogger for the largest South Asian American website Sepia Mutiny, and has written for outlets like Truthout, The Aerogram, The Nation, Left Turn Magazine, and more. Her work is published in multiple anthologies, including Pretty Bitches (2020), Shades of Prejudice (2020), New Moon: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims (2020), Modern Loss (2018), Good Girls Marry Doctors (2016) and Love, Inshallah (2012). Her poetry is in Coiled Serpent (2016), Nimrod International Journal (2018) and has her own chapbook called Emdash and Ellipses in 2016. She has just finished her first screenplay, The Merry Muslim Christmas Rom Com. Her artwork was featured in the exhibits Sharia Revoiced (2015), in Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s “H-1B” (2015), and Rebel Legacy: Activist Art from South Asian California (2014). Every Valentine’s Day for past decade, Taz annually sells sets of #MuslimVDay cards, a disruptive art project confusing the islamophobia narrative. A protest sign she designed for the 2017 Women’s March sits in the permanent archives of the Smithsonian Museum of American History.