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Indrani Nayar Gall |
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Indrani Nayar Gall
Website:
indraninayargall.com
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ARTIST STATEMENT
Twice an immigrant, my identity has mutated with each experience of the cultures of the places I have called 'home.' Navigating life through three regions of the globe has helped me to observe the perverse effects of social hierarchy, its product - the marginalized and the displaced. Material and medium have always been key players in forging these concepts. As a convergence of material and content, my work emerges as forms that articulate these interests.
My work is committed to social justice. My present practice explores patriarchy and misogyny by inquiring into the tradition of religious servitude within certain sects of Brahmanical Hinduism. This body of work questions the hidden motives underneath the display of beauty within the rituals of graphic patterns and language, and the conspiracy of dominant classes in using beauty and “well being” to lure the marginalized and the destitute into servitude.
Like Brahmanical Hinduism, the discipline of printmaking is encumbered by too many traditional constraints. In the print-based works the two inhabit and reference each other in the use of ancient and new scripts, patterns, references from temple architectural plans, and the ‘square’ motif - symmetrical/unchanging. The act of cutting and unorthodox approaches to print media became important ways of depicting and relating these motifs. They also subvert the conspiracies of both traditions. The newer emerging body of work, however, is shifting toward merging words/text with visual elements. As the stories of victimization continue alongside the stories of empowerment, the urgency to include the voices of the victims has become more apparent to me. The text narratives unfolding the stories of the young victims and their goddess, also a victim, are becoming central elements in the new work. |
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BIO |
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Indrani Nayar-Gall, a full-time artist, Indian by birth, lived in Barbados before migrating to USA. She earned a BFA in printmaking and an MFA in experimental printmaking from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University; a diploma in teaching from University of the West Indies (UWI) and an advance graduate certificate in contemporary non-toxic printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology. Indrani is a multi-disciplinary artist. The repertoire of her studio practice includes work on paper, installation and digital media.
After graduating from art school Indrani moved to Barbados with her husband and launched a professional career in art and teaching. She has exhibited extensively. Her earlier collective exhibition record includes representing Barbados internationally to Bienal de la Carib: Dominican Republic; Biennial De San Juan Del Grabado Latinoamericano Y Del Caribe; London, Canada and France.
Her recent important collective shows include, 2015 - Ornate Activate, Shirin Gallery, SAWCC's annual exhibition, at Shirin Gallery, NYC; 5th Anniversary Exhibition Brentwood Arts Exchange Gateway Arts Center; Erasing Borders 2015 Indo-American Arts Council; 2014 in “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World”, Pérez Art Museum Miami; New Prints 2014/Summer, International Print Center New York, Christie's Midtown, Manhattan, NYC, Central Booking, NYC; The Gallery - Green Hill Center for NC Art; 2013 North American Print Biennial. Her recent solo exhibitions include Elizabeth Dunlap Patrick Gallery, Winthrop University Galleries; Cleveland Community College; Rowe Arts Galleries | College of Arts + Architecture | UNCC; Levine Museum of the New South: Museum in Charlotte, West Gallery, Elon University; ECA Gallery India; Cleveland State University.
Indrani’s work has been reviewed and discussed in books, catalogs, journals and newspapers in Barbados, USA and India. The important ones to mention are - India Abroad, Huffington Post, The Journal of the American Print Alliance, Vol. 18, #2, "Indrani Nayar-Gall Interview by Carol Pulin"; Charlotte Artist Profile: Indrani Nayar-Gall; “Art In Barbados: What Kind of Mirror Image?” Ian Randle Publishers; “Black Diaspora Visual Art Symposium”, National Art Gallery Committee, Barbados; Gutfreund, Karen M. Women’s Rights: An Artist’s Perspective; Creative Loafing.
Indrani’s studio practice includes work on paper, installation, and digital media. Her work examines social justice through visuality, specifically at present her work align with the growing social impetus aimed at overcoming all social/religious barriers to equality and empowerment of marginalized women.
Her recent grants and awards include Regional Artist Project Grant, Arts & Science Council, Mecklenburg County, NC; Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund, UNC Charlotte, NC; Project Grant, National Gallery of Barbados and Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant, Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. She is a fellow of VCCA, Amherst, VA; alumni of McColl Center for Visual Art, NC; and Khoj Kolkata, India, affiliated with Triangle Trust, UK.
Indrani was a tenured faculty at Barbados Community College, the only institution to grant a degree in visual art in Barbados. After migrating to USA she taught as an adjunct faculty at Western Michigan University and UNC Charlotte. Indrani also presented in panels, discussions and taught workshops at various universities. She was invited to lead a community project for the closing event of the Romare Bearden Retrospective at Mint Museum, public participatory project Separated By ‘A’ Skin at Levine Museum of the New South, The Black Diaspora Exhibition Symposium, Barbados.
Nayar-Gall lives and works in Charlotte, NC. |
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