When identities are in flux, art can be an instrument of orientation and positioning oneself in the world. Thanks to art’s ability to negotiate contradictions and encompass double articulations, tensions, and complexities, it can chart how identifications may shift continually and dynamically as one navigates countries and cultures.

As artists, we are first generation migrants, who investigate the space of belonging and fragmented memory. We embody our ancestors by allowing our culture’s aesthetics to influence our practice. We balance our dual identities while preserving our legacy for future generations. Together, we intentionally curate mixed media works that mine our personal archive and memorabilia tugging at our matrilineal thread, connecting individual and shared histories. Whether drawing on family heirlooms, inherited handmade items or things spotted in south asia alone, we aim to show how repurposing or restaging can be a vital means of ensuring our stories survive. Acknowledging that mapping is an act of power, our work bypasses borders and makes connections between flora, land, and mutability of identity.

On a more utopian note, we hope that by drawing on art’s sensitivity to the complexities of human relations, this exhibit will contribute to the development of a more empathic and reciprocal understanding of the conditions of migrants in receiving countries and help expand our knowledge of how migration contributes to profound and often conflictual transformations of society as well as to its overall plurality and richness.

Tulika Ladsariya is an interdisciplinary artist, frequently drawn to objects associated with traditional women’s work using domesticity and nurture to discuss fragility, femininity, identity, and personal history. Her practice evolved from painting to ceramics and mixed media installations as she began to focus on domestic objects in the feminine sphere. Handwork and gardening became totems of the small everyday rituals that ground and center women’s lives. Born in Mumbai, India and living in Chicago, USA, her work is an exploration of her layered identity – as an Indian-born woman, a first-generation immigrant, and a mother.

Ladsariya is a qualified Chartered Accountant from India, and her artistic practice has been self-driven, supported by workshops in art centers and residency programs. She has exhibited at the Hammond Museum NY, Ralph Arnold Gallery (Loyola University), O’Connor Gallery (Dominican University), Shingoethe Center (Aurora University), Woman-made Gallery, Expo Chicago, Riverside Arts Center, Jamaat Art gallery Mumbai and Art Heritage Gallery New Delhi. She has been a resident at the Hyde Park Art Center from 2019-2021. She is a 2022-23 recipient of the In-Session Fellowship for Threewalls Foundation and the Individual Artist Grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs in Chicago.

Nirmal Raja is an interdisciplinary artist who recently relocated to Cambrdige MA after living and working in Milwaukee for 24 years. Raja had lived in India, South Korea, and Hong Kong before immigrating to the United States thirty years ago. At the core of her practice is a solid resistance against being defined. Whether as a reaction to growing up in a traditional Indian household or the orientalist expectations of a Western audience or the demands for formulaic consistency in the art market, she strives to exist on the edges of what is expected. This comes through in her experimental practice, wide-open curiosity, varied interests, and responses to life’s complexities. She collaborates with other artists and strongly believes in investing energy into her immediate community while also considering the global. She periodically curates exhibitions that bring people from different cultures and backgrounds together.

Raja holds a BA in English Literature from St. Francis College in Hyderabad, India; a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She has participated in solo and group shows in the Midwest, nationally, and internationally. She is the recipient of several awards including “Graduate of The Decade” from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Raja received the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for individual artists for the year 2020 and the Mildred L. Harpole Artists of the Year 2022 award from the Milwaukee Arts Board. She has and continues to attend several residencies including the Arts/Industry Residency in Kohler, Vermont Studio Center, The Studios at MASS MoCA, and more.

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Tags: Heaven Gallery, Nirmal Raja, Tulika Ladsariya, Wicker Park