Shahzia Sikander

Shahzia Sikander was born in Lahore , Pakistan. She received her M.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design. Shahzia Sikander’s latest series is a re-examination of the genre of Indo-Persian miniature paintings and recontext-ualization of Indian and Pakistani imagery . Her work is characterized by the precision of line and delicacy of touch where her water colour pigments often bleed into one another.

Arti Sandhu

"The Alphabet series began as an impulsive response to my experience of coming home on a yearly visit to Delhi in 2005. Each year I would suffer pangs of homesickness and nostalgia that made my visits to India and the photographs I took during that time extremely crucial to my existence for the rest of year. After having spent many months not speaking any Hinglish, each year I would experience a sudden shock of having to relearn this hybrid language and the nuances that go with it. The classic symptoms of migrant nostalgia were also at play where in my photography I would favor the old over the new, the localized global over completely global - which in my case meant preferring handpainted signs over the digital versions, or the ambassador over a Honda."

Arti Sandhu studied Fashion at NIFT, Delhi. She currently lives and works in Chicago . You can find more of her very cool work here.

Kali Arulpragasam

Kali Arulpragasam , a London born Sri lankan is a Central St.Martin's grad . Her latest line of jewelry titled, Terrorism affects Tourism is an attempt to remind us of the underlying beauty of countries that have been marred by violence. And yes , she is M.I.A's sister.

Mala Iqbal

Mala Iqbal has an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and paints surreal landscapes inspired by science fiction.

Swati Khurana

These are images from New York based Mixed Media artist Swati Khurana's 'carousel' book titled Five Day Wedding. The book illustrates experiences from the artists own Malabar wedding .Her work explores personal narratives and immigrant issues with a focus on gender, popular culture, and the seductive promises made by rituals.

Rajkamal Kahlon

"For this body of work, Rajkamal Kahlon has created a series of paintings using Cassell's Illustrated History of India, published in 1875. Employing the book's illustrations as a base, Kahlon paints on the actual book pages, creating a charged, fragmented narrative about Indian history and its colonial past. By unbinding the pages from the book, Kahlon's gouache paintings tell a new story of brutality, power, and the possibilities of survival."

I don't know how I feel about her work . I'm trying to understand the subversive content that blatantly expresses her views on colonial prejudice but the unsettling juxtaposition of the candy colours and the grotesque imagery is not working for me right now. Nevertheless, it's very interesting and I'd love to see what she does next.

Dastkari Haat Part 1

The Kalakshetra Dance Academy at Chennai hosted a 10 day Crafts Bazaar called Dastkari Haat. They had stalls set up showcasing handicrafts and textiles from all over India. It was more of a central-east-west India affair but quite interesting nevertheless and had all the art curious of Chennai shuffling about in the dust. The beautiful , large , tree filled premises added to the charm of the whole thing but made the pictures a little shadowy and dodgy , still here's a few : (click for detail)

Block printed fabric streamers

Sikki Basket Lady


Sikki Baskets

Mehndi (henna) + Snowmen

Cool Graphic Kites

Bead work Bangles

Patchwork Quilt with the most amazing details

Shadow puppet

Ceramic Ware

Papier Mache ware

Madhubani Artist

Gond Plushies