Exhibition

New YorkOrnate Activate

June 11 – July 9, 2015

Indrani Nayar-Gall

 Indrani Nayar-Gall, "100 Squares," 2013, floor installation, etching and aquatint on cotton, felt, LED lights

Sausan Saulat

"Shark!" by Sausan Saulat, 2013, mixed media on panel

Nirmal Raja

Nirmal Raja's installation entitled "Negotiate," made of plexiglas, sand, and a projected video animation

Zainab Hussain

"Audrey" by Zainab Hussain, 2014, Gouache on inkjet print

Parisa Ghaderi

"Surprise!," from Parisa Ghaderi's untitled photography series (2012)

Priankya Dasgupta

Sculptural installation by Priankya Dasgupta, entitled "Husma/Hamsa" (2015)

Monica Jahan Bose

Hawa (Wind) by Monica Jahan Bose (Detail)

Press Release

Shirin Gallery NY, in collaboration with The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, is pleased to present SAWCC’s Annual Visual Arts Exhibition featuring 22 artists. Guest curated by Alexander Campos, Ornate Activate examines the use of decorative motifs, architectural elements, cursive scripts and other forms of pattern-making by artists to create and imply content. The exhibition also examines the employment of culturally specific motifs as social and/or political commentary, as well as cultural indicators of historical referencing. The goal of the exhibition is to bring together a body of work that demonstrates a current interest by contemporary artists to merge and reclaim decorative and craft elements as meaningful and critical content signifiers.

Artists: Nida Abidi, Fariba Alam & Shagun Singh, Kamal Badhey, Shelly Bahl, Marcy Chevali, Priyanka Dasgupta, Roya Farassat, Asha Ganpat, Parisa Ghaderi, Zainab Hussain, Monica Jahan Bose, Vandana Jain, Umber Majeed, Radhika Mathews, Indrani Nayar­-Gall, Kaveri Raina, Nirmal Raja, Sausan Saulat, Asma Shikoh, Suran Song, Udita Upadhyaya

About SAWCC: The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC) is a nonprofit arts organization dedi-cated to the advancement, visibility, and development of emerging and established South Asian women artists and creative professionals by providing a physical and virtual space to profile their creative and intellectual work across disciplines. SAWCC has served South Asian women since 1997 and has earned a reputation for showcasing cutting-edge work that deals intelligently with issues of gender and cultural representation.