My work is rooted in feelings that cannot be simply expressed, one that is impacted by my identity as the daughter of immigrants from Pakistan and Guatemala. Through paintings, drawings, and objects, I explore the cultural, racial, and ethnic melancholy and isolation of living in an American suburb. The exploration of gardens, windows, fences, and objects respond to the many facets of my identity as a child of immigrants, a multiracial and multiethnic woman, subjected to American history and idealism.
These very multiple and fragmented identities contribute to the shifts in imagery to convey an exploration of the immigrant experience of settling into a suburb for safety and security but often finding other forms of tensions and conflicts. An attempt at reconciliation with the self through windows and fences affirms our identities as outsiders looking in and looking out. Objects become vessels of exchange between cultures and generations, as well as channels to explore the romantic, religious, personal, and the political. The experiences, possessions, and possibilities that we collect allow us to reflect upon ourselves and come to an understanding of our authentic selves.
Fences form barriers to explore ideas of comfort and confinement. Due to the inability to belong, we retreat into these in-between spaces and cultivate a space that is entirely our own. The garden becomes the location for the search of self and as a place where intersections between cultures, histories, and identities can exist and grow. It is a place where flowers are portraits of homelands that are both rooted, uprooted, and reproduced. The garden represents the aftermath and afterlife of our histories and legacies that often begin in our own backyards.
Education
2021 The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA MFA Candidate
2018 Goldsmiths College, London, England Summer Residency
Tyler School of Art & Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA Painting and Sculpture Summer Intensive
2017 The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY Summer Residency
2016 The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA BFA, Interdisciplinary Fine Arts, Concentration in Painting and Drawing
Awards & Honors
InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA Wind Young Fellowship, Honorable Mention
Roberta Treatman Eisenberg Memorial Scholarship
Viola Foulke Scholarship
Ernest W. Greenfield Annual Memorial Award in Painting
Artistic Excellence Award MFA Scholarship
Professional Experience
2020 The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Graduate Teaching Assistant, Form and Structure Drawing and Painting with Jill Rupinski (Undergraduate)
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Graduate Teaching Assistant, Artists Writing with Kaitlin Pomerantz (Low-residency MFA)
2019 The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Graduate Teaching Assistant, Figure Painting with Bruce Samuelson (Undergraduate)
Exhibitions
2019 Reflection(s), Anne Bryan Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2018 The Imploring Surface, Stella Elkins Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
National Prize Show, Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge, MA
2017 A More Perfect Union, Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA
2016 Where Your Garden Grows, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
