Art + Design welcomes internationally recognized artist Jaishri Abichandani to continue CECA Visiting Artist Speaker Series

(Posted on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022)

Abichandani

The Department of Art + Design, with support from The Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, is pleased to welcome internationally recognized artist Jaishri Abichandani to continue the 2022-23 CECA Visiting Artist Speaker Series season.

“Jaishri Abichandani is a force in the art world whose work has been exhibited in many countries at major institutions throughout the globe with works that often collapse autobiography, contemporary ideas and politics within mythical forms,” said Michael Dickins, chair of the Visiting Artist Speaker Committee. “She was the founding director of Public Events and Projects at the Queens Museum of Art where she organized ‘Fatal Love: South Asian American Art Now’ and ‘Queens International 2006: Everything All at Once’ and many other exhibitions. She also organized a trilogy of exhibitions in 2019 to inaugurate the Ford Foundation Gallery centered on visions of BIPOC artists. Jaishri is an intelligent and generous artist in which we are honored to host.”

Abichandani’s public lecture will be at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10, in Heydel Hall (Room 120) of the Art + Design building.

“During Abichandani’s visit, she will be working with our printmaking professor, Patrick Vincent, to create a new print edition of her work,” Dickins added. “One of the pieces in the edition will be donated to APSU’s Art Collection. This will increase our collection of contemporary prints that we’ve been building over the past few years. An additional two pieces from the edition will be donated to CECA to go toward fundraising initiatives, so it’s possible that a community member can not only support CECA and its programming but also own an original work by Jaishri Abichandani.”

About the artist

Abichandani describes her work this way: “The art I produce in the studio synthesizes the mythology and aesthetic vernaculars of South Asian art and culture with contemporary socio-political concerns. Having abdicated the religion I was born into (Hinduism) for its violent misogyny and caste apartheid, I feel compelled to create a new pantheon that is at once magical/sacred and reflects my intersectional feminism. The compositions of my works often allude to iconic tropes in Indian sculptures, while updating and subverting them. Materials used in the ritual worship of idols such as clothing and jewelry are extracted from their religious purposes and brought into the space of contemporary art, amplifying the association of the sculptures with the Divine Feminine. Imbuing archetypal imagery with political and feminist concerns allows me to respond to the rise of religious and racial fundamentalism in my countries of origin and residence.”

Abichandani’s work is in the Burger Collection, Asia Art Archive Collection and Saatchi Collection. She has been a resident of LMCC’s Process Space residency and an honoree of the Brooklyn Art Council and ASHA for Women. She was awarded grants by the FST Studio Projects Fund and the Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2021.

She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

For more on Abichandani and her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram @Jaishri Abichandani.

For more on this lecture, contact Dickins at dickinsm@apsu.edu. For future CECA Visiting Artist Speaker Series events, visit .

All events are free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

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