In conjunction with our current exhibition, curator Shelly Bahl has organized a symposium that will investigate the ways in which South Asian American artists are contributing to and changing the landscape of American art.
The day-long symposium, featuring three discussion panels, will focus on the intersection of art practices, art histories, and arts education. The invited panelists will also share their insights on the opportunities and challenges they have encountered in the Chicago artistic community.
The symposium will address the need for recovering and preserving overlooked histories and art archival materials, as well as the pivotal roles of curators, art historians, educators, archivists and arts institutions within this context. We will also spotlight art collectives and community-building initiatives in Chicago that prioritize the narratives and works of racialized artists.
Schedule:
Registration and welcome: 11:00 am
11:30 am - 1:00 pm: Shadows Dance Within the Archives: Documenting and Preserving Asian American Art Histories
Laura Kina (chair) is an artist and Vincent de Paul Professor at the Art School at DePaul University in Chicago whose scholarship archives Asian American art communal histories. Kina is a curator for the Virtual Asian American Art Museum, coeditor of War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art and Queering Contemporary Asian American Art, and the illustrator of Lee A. Tonouchi’s award-winning children’s book Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos. Her coedited illustrated cookbook with Jave Yoshimoto, Word of Mouth: Asian American Artists Sharing Recipes, is forthcoming from University of Arkansas Press in 2025.
Tara Kuruvilla is a Core Lecturer in the Department of Art History at Columbia University, specializing in the visual cultures of colonial South Asia. She earned her PhD from Columbia University, where she also completed an MA and MPhil in Art History, along with an MA in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies. Kuruvilla’s research interests encompass collecting and empire, art-historical historiography, and modern and contemporary South Asian art. Her most recent project, Disjecta Membra: The Life and Afterlife of the India Museum, explores the history and nachleben of the India Museum collection housed at the East India Company headquarters in London. Committed to object-centered pedagogy, Kuruvilla has taught a range of courses at Columbia University, Barnard College, The University of Chicago, and The Cooper Union, working with students to engage directly with museum collections.
Sarita Heer is an Advanced Lecturer of art history at Loyola University Chicago. She completed her PhD from the University of Illinois Chicago in South Asian Visual Culture, 1850-Present. Her dissertation, Re-Imaging Indian Womanhood: The Multiple Mythologies of Phoolan Devi, has a chapter focused on South Asian American artist, Chitra Ganesh. Her current research is focused on contemporary South Asian visual culture, with a particular interest in women artists and images of women. She has previously taught art history at the Memphis College of Art and at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Alexander Yu is co-editor of riksha magazine, a grassroots not-for-profit that presents art, literature and performance, by or about Asian Americans since 1993. Formally a nationally distributed print magazine in the 1990’s and 2000’s, it now exists online, and has various stages of dormancy. In addition to the magazine, riksha has also produced live events and art exhibits. Yu is currently working to digitize and edit videotapes of Asian American performances and exhibitions during the 1990s and 2000s from the riksha archives, and is publishing them on the riksha magazine Youtube channel.
Lunch: 1:00 - 1:45pm
1:45 - 3:15 pm: Ustads and Gurus: The Role of Art Education and Mentorship Within the South Asian Diaspora
Shaurya Kumar (chair) is based in Chicago and is a Chair of Faculty, and a Professor at SAIC. He has received the Faculty of the Year award at SAIC and has been a long time faculty advisor for the South Asian Student Association. A native of Delhi, India, Kumar has been involved in numerous prestigious research projects, such as, The Paintings of India, and Handmade in India. He has given lectures around the globe and exhibited widely across the US and abroad including venues such as Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai; Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai; Gallery Threshold, New Delhi; NIU Art Museum, IL; Seoul Museum, Seoul; Queens Museum, NYC; LACDA, Los Angeles; Guanlan Printmaking Base, China; Sundaram Tagore NYC; Aicon Gallery, NYC; and in numerous art fairs in India, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Kumar is represented by Gallery Threshold, New Delhi, Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai and NYC, and Kriti Gallery in Varanasi, India.
Janhavi Khemka is an interdisciplinary artist who graduated with an MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2022. She also has a BFA in Painting from the Faculty of Visual Art, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and an MFA in Graphics from Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. As a hearing-impaired person, she creates works that invite the viewer to experience her perception of the world, devoid of aural stimulation.
Khemka has presented solo exhibitions at Comfort Station and SITE Student Galleries in Chicago. Recently, she has been awarded fellowships at KALA Art Institute Residency, Berkeley, and the 3Arts/ Body of Work Residency, between UIC and MCA, Chicago. Her works are a part of several significant collections, including the KNMA and the Alkazi Foundation in India. Khemka works between Santiniketan, Varanasi and Chicago.
Al-Qawi Nanavati is an artist from Mumbai, India, currently based in Iowa City. She completed her BFA from SAIC in 2017, focusing on printmaking and painting. Awarded the Iowa Arts Fellowship, she is currently pursuing an MFA in Printmaking at the University of Iowa, with a Minor in Papermaking and a Book Arts Certificate. She co-founded Young Art Support, an online platform for promoting and exhibiting the work of young artists in India, and Immerse, a fully funded residency for Indian curators and artists at Somaiya Vidyavihar University. Nanavati’s art is inspired by meditation, repetition, and the aftermath of loss. Nanavati's works have been exhibited widely, including the South Asia Institute, Chicago, Gallery XXL, Mumbai, Latitude 28, New Delhi, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, Delhi Contemporary Art Week, and Mumbai Gallery Weekend.
Melissa Raman Molitor is an artist and the founding director of Evanston ASPA (Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islander American), and she’s an Associate Professor, Adjunct at SAIC. She also currently serves as Chair on the Evanston Arts Council. Molitor is the 2022 recipient of the Evanston Art Center Curatorial Fellowship and is a guest co-curator for the 2025 Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden. She holds a BA in Psychology, a BFA from the University of Michigan, and an MA from SAIC.
3:30 - 5 pm Shadow Bodies Are Electric: Independent Artists and Curators Lighting Sparks
Shelly Bahl (chair) is a NYC based interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator, who has been leading and participating in BIPOC and feminist artist-run culture in Toronto and NYC for over 30 years. She has exhibited internationally, and is a member of the feminist artist collective, The Paglees. She is also a founding artist member of South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC) and ZEN-MIX 2000: Pan-Asian Visual Arts Network in Toronto. She has received many grants and fellowships for independent art and curatorial projects, artistic collaborations, research, and residencies, including support from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Bahl has also taught studio art, art theory and art history at Saint Francis College, Bard Microcollege, University of Toronto, Ontario College of Art and Design University, Alfred University, Pratt Institute and Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Sadia Uqaili is an artist, filmmaker, curator and educator based in Chicago. She utilizes the camera and her art to inspire, motivate, heal, and celebrate. Born in Pakistan, she was educated in Canada and the UK, before migrating to the United States. Uqaili has presented her curatorial projects at the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago hospitals and numerous other public and private galleries. She founded Explore Their Stories Inc. in 2016, and previously, she led educational programs at Snow City Arts for 15 years. Her award-winning artwork has been exhibited internationally in Chicago, Kuala Lumpur, Spain, Singapore, Phoenix, Karachi, Edmonton and Ville Marie, Quebec.
Asad Ali Jafri is a cultural producer, community organizer, and interdisciplinary artist. Using a grassroots approach and global perspective, Asad connects artists and communities across imagined boundaries to create meaningful engagements and experiences. Jafri started community organizing in the early 2000s as Regional Director for Hip Hop Congress. In 2007, he was the inaugural Director of Arts and Culture at IMAN (Inner-city Muslim Action Network) on the southwest side of Chicago. Since then, Jafri has served as Curator of Programs at Shangri La Museum in Honolulu and as Executive Director at South Asia Institute. He has produced and curated a number of festivals and is currently directing the Words Beats & Life Festival in DC. Jafri is a co-founder of SpaceShift Collective, a collaborative of artists experimenting with the ways in which we work, live, and create.
Pia Singh is an independent curator and arts writer from Bombay, now living and working in Chicago. Serving both commercial and not-for-profit organizations in the arts over the past 15 years, Singh is dedicated to bolstering artistic practices through exhibitions, writing, and community organizing. Her research focuses on community-engaged arts practices at the intersection of contemporary art and design, challenging structural and pedagogical hierarchies within and outside of which artists forge pathways toward systemic change. Singh is published by Sixty Inches from Center, Chicago Reader, Brooklyn Rail, Frieze, and Tussle Magazine. Her work has also been featured in Hyperallergic, Cultured, and ArtIndia.
Closing remarks, catalog launch and reception: 5 - 6pm