Introduction

Vadehra Art Gallery opens its doors for the debut of Indian-American artist Joya Mukerjee Logue, who brings her decade-long painting practice to her solo exhibition, ‘those who walk before me.’  The show will feature thirty paintings in oil and watercolour. The show will open on 27 August 2024 and will be on view until 17 September 2024.

Born to an American mother and Indian father, Joya Mukerjee Logue embodies a mixed cultural heritage whose esoteric qualities yield inner itineraries seeking connections to people, places and things across cultural and conceptual boundaries. Her practice is informed by personal inquiry and research into her cultural identity, often supported by regular travels to India.

Her paintings overlap the reminiscences of familial and cultural memory with experiences of the present through the contours of her life in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA – offering intimate documentations of the human condition and the way people live out their existences through time, emotion and belonging. The enduring human spirit, tied to the animism of culture, land and nature, recurs as motifs in her soulful and charming portrayals of everyday life, rendered with fluid strokes in an earthen palette, as self-reflections of an individual beset within a plural identity. 

These recent paintings explore the architecture of and neighbourhood surrounding her paternal ancestral home in Ambala, Haryana, situated in the bustling bazaar of the old Grand Trunk Road. Here, Mukerjee Logue turns an anthropological lens upon herself – poising herself towards self-discovery from reflections on collective memory and experience, to reclaim and articulate narratives of continuity in time, history and culture through changing structures, stories and selves. 

On Thursday, 29 August 2024 at 6 pm, artist Joya Mukerjee Logue will be in conversation with author and publisher Mala Singh, who is a well-respected voice on conservation, culture, traditional skill revivals and social histories.

About Joya Muerjee Logue

Born in 1976 in Springfield, Ohio, USA, Joya Mukerjee Logue completed a bachelor of science degree from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. Mukerjee Logue’s practice of oil and watercolour painting focuses on women, intimate portraits and everyday scenes. Her work has been exhibited in New York City, London, Ohio, and now India. The artist lives and works in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

About Vadehra Art Gallery

Representing a roster of artists across four generations, Vadehra Art Gallery was established in 1987 to pioneer South Asian art around the world. Vadehra Art Gallery’s active and comprehensive programming takes the form of carefully curated and frequent exhibitions at two prominent locations in Delhi, alongside art events, engaging conversations and a growing digital platform. With a maturing global presence, the gallery continues to present curated projects at prestigious art fairs and institutional venues around the world. The gallery ventured into publishing in 1996, in addition to contemporaneously producing literature on ongoing exhibitions and artist projects

Feature Image – ‘Night at Sadar Bazaar, Ambala Cantt.‘, Oil on linen, 36 x 48 in, 2004

Image Courtesy – Vadehra Art Gallery 

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