Originally from Detroit MI, Yamini Nayar currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Yamini received her BFA in Photography from the RhodeIsland School of Design in 1999, and MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, NY in 2005.
Her work has been exhibited at the Queens Museum of Art, Bose Pacia Modern and the Studio Museum of Harlem. Awards and residencies include the Aaron Siskand Fellowship in 2004 and Chashama, NY.

Statement
In my images, I explore the representation of place, memory and fragmentation through sculpture and photography. My photographs are made from constructed miniature installations that depict imaginary environments and objects, documented and printed in large-format. I work within the aftermaths and traces of experience - cracks and crevices found in the walls, a stack of objects as a reminder - creating narratives within this periphery. Source material draws from historical image archives, postcolonial literature and set design. I am interested in the underlying structures within these 'found' moments', and how reality and the design of reality can interact within a photographic document.

Education
2005 MFA School of Visual Arts, Photography and Related Media
1999 BFA Rhode Island School of Design, Photography and Related Media

Selected Exhibitions
2007
Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, Australia, "Young Indian Artists", with Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi and Bose Pacia, NY
2006
Bose Pacia Modern, NY "Yamini Nayar and Shreshta Premnath"
Onishi Gallery, NY "The Kayu Project"
Kiana Malakzadeh Gallery, NY "This One Time"
2005
Queens Museum of Art, NY "Fatal Love: South Asian American Art Now"
Rush Arts Gallery, NY "More or Less, Generation Meaning Through Process"
Studio Museum of Harlen, NY "hrlm: pictures" - video directed by Greg Tate
PH Gallery, NY "Empire's Feast"
2004
Gallery Arts India, NY "Territories"
PS 122, NY "Blow the Conch"
2003
Bose Pacia, NY, "Through Customs" juried by Shamim Momin & Raina Lampkin-Fielder
Rye Center, NY
2002
CBGB's 313 Gallery, NY "Black Tea"
The Interart Annex, NY "Women in Wartime"
1999
Woods-Gerry Gallery, RI "RISD Graduation Invitational"
Red-Eye Gallery, RI, Thesis Show

Bibliography
2006
Shifter Magazine, "Ruin / Monument", Fall 2006, shiftermagazine.net
TimeOut NY, Aug 17-23, 2006 "Yamini Nayar and Shreshta Premnath"
Flavorpill NYC, Dawn Chen, issue #323 "Yamini Nayar and Shreshta Premnath"
Asian Art News, Priya Malhotra, Jan 2006 "A Multitude of Voices"
2005
NY Times, Holland Cotter, March 5, 2005 "Taking a Magical Flight through Modern India"
Ego Magazine, Kiran Chandra, Apr 2005 "Fatal Love" review
Art AsiaPacific, Peter Nagy, Winter 2004 "Through Customs" review
Anokhi Vibe, Lavina Melwani Oct 2004 "Territories"

Curatorial Projects / Residencies / Awards / Lectures
2006
SAWCC's "In a State of Emergency", Alwan for the Arts - co-curated and produced
2005
Asian American Art Centre (AAAC) presentation
2004
Aaron Siskand Memorial Scholarship
2004
"Territories", Gallery ArtsIndia
2002
Chashama Residency, NY
2002
University of Illinois, IL, presentation

Public collections
Queens Museum