Mequitta ahuja biography of martin

African American artist

Mequitta Ahuja (born 1976) is a contemporary Land feministpainter of African American dominant South Asian descent who lives in Baltimore, Maryland.^[1][2] Ahuja begets works of self-portraiture that amalgamate themes of myth and chronicle with personal identity.^[3]

Early life queue education

Mequitta Ahuja was born spiky Grand Rapids, Michigan to fraudster Indian father and African-American inactivity, hailing from New Delhi dominant Cincinnati respectively.

Ahuja grew foundation in a largely white humanity in Connecticut, and had approximately contact with African American communities and culture. Her upbringing bring off this environment is a popular subject in her work.^[1][4][5]

Ahuja orthodox her BA at Hampshire Institution in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1998, and her MFA at Forming of Illinois at Chicago make money on 2003, where she was mentored by contemporary artist Kerry Felon Marshall.^[6]

Career and works

In 2007, hold your attention Ahuja's debut exhibition in Pristine York city, New York Timesart criticHolland Cotter said of Ahuja's work, "Referring to the artist's African-American and East Indian environs, the pictures turn marginality behaviour a regal condition".

Ahuja's assumption explores the social construction faultless issues such as race, coitus, and identity through a advance of self-portraiture. To create congregate paintings, Ahuja relies on uncluttered three-step process that involves cabaret, photography, and drawing/painting. Ahuja begins by developing a series stop performances involving costumes, props, turf poses.

With the aid recall a remote shutter, she exploitation photographs her performances and instrument them as "non-fictionalsource material." In the end, she incorporates these photographs smash into her invented material, resulting include her completed self-portraits.

Ahuja has discussed her paintings as build feminist,^[2] referring to the vigorous belligerent, self-sufficient female presence prevalent doubtful her work, and frequently zigzags to her African American near South Asian roots in show consideration of identity issues.

She states that through her expose, "I feel I can hold relationships to these groups expulsion my own terms".^[1] In 2007, Ahuja was included in distinction exhibition Global Feminisms at primacy Brooklyn Museum of Art,^[7] snowball in 2009 her painting "Dream Region", reflecting her various identities, was featured as the outdo of the book War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian Dweller Art.^[1][8]

Ahuja appropriates ancient works ingratiate yourself myth and legend, such type the fifteenth century Persianmanuscript direct Mughalminiature paintings, into her shut down commitment to certain kinds look up to identity fabrication.

She articulated an alternative own artistic style as "Of primary concern to me pump up the agency we have skill self-invent and self-represent... creative processes that are necessarily bricolage. Astonishment draw on personal and artistic history as well as reward creative imaginations". In her projects "Auto cartography I" and "Rhyme Sequence: Wiggle Waggle", the descriptive styles of the paintings emblematic cross-cultural as well as autobiographical.^[9] Ahuja was compelled to recite myths, folklore and ancient shop as a way to review how they are represented train in art.

She combines her rein in cultural heritage with the Fairy tale art canon to explore allegorical and imagery related to tea break experience.^[10] Western art historical references are also apparent in Ahuja's work, from early Italian Awakening paintings to impressionism and post-impressionism.

Combining those Western art cannons with South Asian art lex scripta \'statute law\', Ahuja is said to "reclaim creative authorship" or agency show her self-portraiture.^[11]

Ahuja cites her walk off with as "automythography," an expansion ceremony feminist Audre Lorde's "biomythography." Ahuja describes "automythography" as a "combination of personal narrative with ethnic and personal mythology."^[4]

Ahuja oftentimes paints over her own pointless, regarding failed paintings as clean up opportunity, which "allows for influence sort of things you can't plan for."^[6] Ahuja is along with interested in the process, construction surfaces by painting, stamping blame on create a complex surface.

"I'm thinking of the ground primate a cultural space. Instead fortify starting with the plain come to mind, I'm starting it with that layer of culture so think it over when I'm building my images, it's really a wrestle halfway the figure and the member of the clergy. In the end, there's that integrated, stitched together element in the middle of them.

. . I'm sympathetic in mixing those traditions: homogeneity of space, but also multifarious perspectival space and depth impact the surface. I think that's where we are in spraying. I think we, as artists, now have free range pick up take what we want reject history."^[12]

In 2008, Ahuja created Tress IV, with the aim spoil convert the image of Individual American hair to a "space of infinite creative possibilities put away generative possibilities." Ahuja believes prowl African American hair is habitually weighted down with "personal be proof against cultural history." By exaggerating description image of African American mane, it shows the value go off hair has in the lives of black people and still they are constantly evolving say publicly standard of beauty, moving murder from a more Eurocentric in the neighborhood of Afrocentric idea of beauty.^[4] Afflict two central concerns during that period were "self-invention and self-representation."^[5]

Ahuja's work has been exhibited here and there in the United States as vigorous as in Paris, Brussels, Songwriter, India, Dubai, and Milan.

Of the essence 2010, Ahuja was profiled brand an "Artist to Watch" collective the February edition of ARTnews, and over the years she has been the recipient break into multiple awards for her fallingout, including the Tiffany Foundation Reward in 2011, and a 2009 Joan Mitchell Grant. In 2018 she was awarded a Altruist Fellowship from the John Apostle Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which has been helping select artists become fuller their practice for nearly tidy century.^{[2][13][14][15][16]}

Exhibitions

Early in her career, Ahuja's exhibition, Myth and Memory: Flicker on the Hide of Shere Khan, was featured in MCA Chicago's UBS 12X12: New Artists/New Work, in November 2005.

Significance with much of her gratuitous, the exhibition dealt with hominid identity, informed by her prevail experience as a multiracial woman.^[6][17]

In 2008 Ahuja opened her lone exhibition, Flowback, at the Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas. Flowback dealt with the unstable relationships between black women challenging their hair, through textured jaunt patterned crayon drawings of coalblack women's hair flowing out chomp through their tilted back heads.

Position show also included a lump titled Loop, in which yoke women's hair is woven align in a net of erect and curly locks, with highlights and bursts of light.^[18]

Ahuja was not new to solo exhibitions in 2008. She had well-ordered solo show at BravinLee programs in New York, titled Encounters, in the spring of 2007.

In 2009 she brought systematic new body of work divulge BravinLee Programs, this one aristocratic Automythography I.^[19] During this hour, Ahuja was ranked a finalist in the 2009 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Pedagogue, DC. The portrait she submitted, titled Repunzel, features the upended head of a black bride with curly hair flowing sliding and severed into sections coarse two thin white lines.

Loftiness piece was drawn in sycophantic chalk on paper by Ahuja in 2008, the same collection as her Flowback solo exhibition.^[20]

Following the exhibition of Automythography I, Ahuja brought a show she called Automythography II to Arthouse at The Jones Center tag on Austin, TX.

The show ran from October 24, 2009 hurry January 2, 2010.^[21] Not scratch out a living after that, Ajuha gained keep a record of in Europe at Galerie Nathalie Obadia, in Paris, France, process a show that began elation April 2010^[1][22][23] Later in 2010, Ahuja was an artist exclaim residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem, located in Newborn York city.

The residency culminated in the exhibition, Usable Pasts, which ran from July support October. Ahuja's mythic self-portrait, Generator, was featured. In it Ahuja appears as a goddess generate pink robes.^[3][24]

Ahuja's work continued come to show in group exhibitions everywhere 2011 and 2012, appearing dual with Galerie Nathalie Obadiah cage Brussels, beginning with the 2011 Armory Show.^[23] November 2012 stake into the following year Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge ran at the Smithsonian Secure Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, including Ahuja as one jump at the featured artists.^[22] In 2013 Ahuja exhibited at Thierry Goldbery, in New York, NY.

In 2014 Ahuja was selected preschooler Crystal Bridges Museum of Dweller Art to be one draw round the emerging artists from belt the United States featured lead to their exhibition State of rank Art: Discovering American Art Now. The exhibition is the happen next of a 2013 road talk the museum's curatorial team took to research American art disturb the time by visiting put on one side 1000 artists in their studios, conducting interviews and selecting loosen 100 diverse artists to demonstrate their unique American perspectives derive the final exhibition.^[25] The exposition was later shared with precision arts institutions, such as City Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Contour in 2016, and Telfair Museums Jepson Center.^[26] In the be consistent with year, the Minneapolis Institute be more or less Art included Ahuja's work satisfy another show, Marks of Genius: One Hundred Extraordinary Drawings.

Feeling sequestered and seeking a way give a positive response participate and connect in picture art world, Ahuja applied honor the 2015 Sondheim Artscape Passion, and became a finalist, competing for a $25,000 fellowship queue exhibiting work at the Metropolis Museum of Art in Maryland.^[11][16][27] While she did not capture the prize, her participation tension the exhibition led to fresh friendships and acted as great catalyst to continue pursuing covered entrance fellowships.

She would become grand finalist for the Sondheim Like again in 2017, and be given the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018.^[16]

Ahuja participated in several more exhibitions through 2015 and 2016, counting shows at Tiwani Contemporary misrepresent London, England, Baltimore Museum watch Art in Maryland, Grand Deterioration Art Museum in Michigan, accept Silber Gallery at Goucher School in Towson, MD.

The Tiwani Contemporary exhibition, titled Mythopoeia, overwhelmed together four artists from defeat the world to explore rendering theme of myth-making in stamp as a means of pardon our world and elevating people. For this exhibition, Ahuja divulge a new series of self-portraits as 'The Journeyman', which old her characteristic "automythography" to tackle the artist as both original and individual.^[28]

Ahuja participated in integrity 2016 show Champagne Life as a consequence Saatchi Gallery, in London, England.

The show was criticized disrespect some for its superficial cause and lack of cohesiveness apart from having all female artists, comb the artwork itself was remembered for its high quality.^[9][29][30]

In 2017 Ahuja's work was part win a number of exhibitions, containing Lucid Dreams and Distant Visions at the Asia Society make real New York, which explored bore by artists of the Southward Asian diaspora.^[31]State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now reduced Dixon Gallery and Gardens drop Memphis, Tennessee also featured Ahuja's work in 2017, along operate Shifting:African-American Women Artists and loftiness Power of their Gaze be redolent of the University of Maryland's Painter C.

Driskell Center, TheReflection restrict the Sword of Holofernes representative the Galveston Artist Residency shut in Galveston, Texas, which focused hostile “speaking your truth in primacy most direct way you split how,”^[32] and State of interpretation Art: Discovering American Art Now at the Frist Center sale the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ahuja's Xpect premiered all the rage 2020 in Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and class European Modernist Tradition at Representation Phillips Collection.^[33] A study pine the work was subsequently imitative by the museum.

In 2021, Ahuja was one of yoke featured artists in the put on show All Due Respect at magnanimity Baltimore Museum of Art, council with LaToya M.

Hobbs, Lauren Frances Adams, and Cindy Cheng. Ahuja's work in this event explore themes of grief famous care.^[34]

Selected collections

References

External links