ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice draws inspiration from the rhythms of everyday life, especially people and places that I know. I use these familiar subjects to explore questions of identity and psyche, delving into my own experiences, thoughts, dreams, and emotions as I ask the viewer to look beyond what the eye sees and consider what lies beneath the surface.
I created “Razai Girl” for my senior capstone project during my final year of college. My initial goal was to take the flattened, intricately detailed style of South Asian miniature paintings and apply it to environments from my childhood home in the suburbs of Philadelphia: the living room, the swingset in the backyard, the forest behind my house. Soon, I was inspired to populate these environments with human and animal characters, and the project evolved into an exploration of identity based on heritage, memory, and mythology. Throughout the story, Razai Girl appears unmoved by the bizarre things happening around her, but she is not as passive as she seems. Her razai—the red quilt she wears—is a source of magical power: a tapestry of memories, monsters, past selves and experiences that allows her to maintain some semblance of control over the strange dream world that she lives in.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I am a Philadelphia-based artist who primarily works in 2D animation, drawing, and painting. In 2024, I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, where I received a BFA in Art with a concentration in Electronic and Time-Based Media. I am the winner of the Anne Ophelia Dowden Award and the Dara Birnbaum Award, which I received from the Carnegie Mellon School of Art Awards Faculty Committee in 2021 and 2024 respectively.
© Nandini Kuppa-Apte