Artist Statement |
| I explore cultural forms of memory and representations of historical trauma. Transnational in scope, my current work is informed by border-related violence that have occurred in different parts of the world. I seek to connect seemingly disparate geopolitical contexts, because I believe that it is important to bring bridges into being even when it seems untenable to do so. Collective memory of communities and nations provides the viscera with which I build these bridges in my work. Installed in experiential environments, these large-scale sculptures and site-sensitive installations reference the body and function as mobile and temporary memorials. I think of my works as “memory sculptures”, an eloquent term coined by cultural scholar, Andreas Huyssen. As an interdisciplinary artist, I migrate between fibers, paper, clay, paint, drawing, and photography. My studio practice is informed equally by material sensibilities as well as current cultural discourses of diaspora and migration, post-colonial theory, and feminist and queer theory. This eclecticism anchors my art practice and my understanding of the worlds I inhabit. |
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Bio |
| Pritika Chowdhry is an artist, curator, scholar, and educator. Born and brought up in India, Pritika moved to the U.S. in 1999. Pritika has an MFA in Studio Art from University of Wisconsin - Madison, as well as an MA in Visual Culture and Gender Studies.
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| Pritika has shown her works nationally in group and solo exhibits including the Queens Museum in New York, the Islip Art Museum in Long Island, the Minneapolis Institute for the Arts, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in Manhattan, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, the DoVA Temporary in University of Chicago, the Brodsky Center in Rutgers University, the Womandmade gallery, and the ARC gallery, both in Chicago, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in Texas, the Cambridge Art Gallery in Massachussets, the Clatstop Gallery in Oregon, and the Class of 1925 gallery in Madison, Wisconsin.
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| She is the recipient of a Vilas International Travel Fellowship, an Edith and Sinaiko Frank Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts, a Wisconsin Arts Board grant, a City of Madison project grant, and a Dane County Commission grant. Pritika teaches at Macalester College, and College of Visual Arts, both in St. Paul, Minnesota. Published scholarship about Pritika’s work has come out in three exhibit catalogs in 2009 and 2010. A major essay by Jacque Micieli will be forthcoming in a retrospective catalog planned for 2010. Pritika has founded the Partition Memorial Project which exists as temporary art exhibits as well as a digital archive, www.partitionmemorialproject.org.
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| As a curator, Pritika has founded the Transdiaspora Project, an ongoing series of exhibits that bring together artists from diverse locations around overarching themes. The third edition in this series titled “Cultural Memory: Transdiasporic Art Practices,” was held at the Womanmade gallery in Chicago in September 2009. A digital archive of the Transdiaspora series of exhibits is available on the website, www.transdiaspora.org.
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| Pritika has presented her research at various national conferences, such as, the International Arts Symposium at NYU, The Contested Terrains of Globalization at UC-Irvine and the South Asian Conference at UW-Madison. In 2010, Pritika will be presenting at the National Women's Studies Association in Denver, Colorado. Pritika also participates in panels, and gives lectures and artist talks about her work by invitation.
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| Please write to pritikastudio at gmail dot com to share your thoughts, suggestions, or any other feedback regarding the work on this website.
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