Glass Rice is pleased to present Far and Familiar, a group exhibition featuring three South Asian women in partnership with guest curator, Sadaf Padder. Far and Familiar explores the double-bind identity of South Asian migrant women. The three artists, Anoushka Mirchandani, Sanie Bokhari, and Renluka Maharaj along with the curator hail from four different regions of the widely-dispersed diaspora - India, Pakistan, Trinidad-Tobago, and Kashmir.

All three artists immigrated to the United States of America as teenagers in pursuit of their artistic endeavors. Now, they have grown roots here. In a land that is both familiar and unfamiliar, what are the ways that they materialize memory and establish belonging through the limits of liminality?

Far and Familiar explores themes of displacement, migration, and intimacy. Each artist establishes her place through a reconnection to materials and relationships that transport her home. The works bridge past to present. They fuse Eastern and Western aesthetic and ideology, from Maharaj’s mixed media and archival photographic collage to Sanie Bokhari’s gothic and Mughal-inspired self and family portraiture to Anoushka Mirchandani’s blend of abstract and figurative styles and exploration of textile culminating in an homage to her Sindhi grandmother.

The immersive space envelops guests through the senses. At the apex of the exhibit is a photographic and material altar, inviting guests to view the generational progression of the artists’ and curators’ families and environmental influences as well as the items that remind them of home.

‘Far and Familiar’ features:

Anoushka Mirchandani
@anoushka / www.anoushkamirchandani.com

San Francisco-based, Indian artist Anoushka Mirchandani moved to the United States when she was 18 years old. Her work is an examination of her experience navigating a multiplicity of identities as an Indian, American, Immigrant, Woman, and Artist. She tells a story of a fractured identity caught between two contrasting worlds—America and India—and what it feels like to exist in a liminal space. Mirchandani explores how the context of her existence—history, culture, the sociopolitical environment, and her immediate surroundings—shapes her inner world.

In 2017 and 2018, Anoushka was selected as a showcase visual artist for Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the US. In 2019, she was selected to show her work at CA State Senator Scott Wiener’s public offices. Anoushka has shown her work in various galleries in San Francisco, with artwork in private collections across the U.S, Europe and India. She recently concluded a sell-out debut solo exhibition in San Francisco in 2020, followed by another sell-out exhibition in London in 2021.

Renluka Maharaj
@renlukamaharaj / www.renluka.com

Ms. Maharaj was born in Trinidad and Tobago and works between Colorado, New York City and Trinidad. Ms. Maharaj attended the University of Colorado, Boulder where she earned her BFA in 2015 and her MFA at The School Of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2017. She has received numerous awards including Martha Kate Thomas Fund, the Presidential Scholarship at Anderson Ranch Center, and the Barbara De Genevieve Scholarship. Her works are in institutional collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Joan Flasch artist book collection, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, special collections at the University of Colorado, Boulder as well as numerous private collections.

Her work has been recognized with awards including fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Fountainhead Residency, Virginia Center For Creative Arts, and Ankhlave Garden Project as well as The Golden Art Foundation and the McColl Art Center Residency in North Carolina. She will also be attending a year-long residency at Project For Empty Spaces in Newark, New Jersey in 2022. Most recently, her work has been published in the second volume of Coolitude co-authored by Khal Thorabully and Marina Carter, an amazing volume of stories, poems, and visual art which addresses Indian indentureship.

Ms. Maharaj installed her first public work in the summer of 2021 at the Queens Botanical Gardens in NY which will also include an indoor exhibition in 2022. She is also preparing for a solo in Dencer that year, as well.

Sanié Bokhari
@saniebokhari / www.saniebokhari.com

Sanié Bokhari (b. 1991) is from Lahore, Pakistan. After completing her Bachelors in Painting from the National College of Arts, in 2014, she taught there for two years. She continued her studio practice alongside, and has exhibited her work in galleries in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. In 2012, she was selected to represent Pakistan in Luton, for a cultural exchange program where Pakistani truck art was the main focus. She also spent a month at the Vermont Studio Centre, after which she recognized the necessity of graduate school for her work practice. In 2016, Bokhari started a two-year MFA program at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her current practice is an undertaking of an inquiry of the broad range of prospects presented by contemporary painting.

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 11th, 2021 | 11am - 7pm

Closing: Saturday, January 15th, 2021

Artist Talk: Monday, December 13th - In personal and streamed online

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday by appointment