Paintings
Hidden Geographies, 2012 (Solo)
Hidden Geographies references historical styles like Romanticism and Impressionism and the lyrical agency of female vanguard painters like Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler, while positing a contrary paradigm to Western art historical ideals, evident in her choice of color and dense patterning. Ray’s metascapes are suspended in time between mythos and reality exposing an intimate topography of the subconscious mind.
Studies - Psychic Objects, 2011 - 2012
Psychic Objects are a set of studies that Ray embarked on in 2011 that explore the spaces of memory and the psyche in form and color. They result from leftover paint in the studio, which she appropriates as residue of the larger format paintings. The studies become traces of the past and are symptomatic of the source from which they originate.
Landscape as Metaphor, 2009-2011
Landscape as Metaphor draw upon the explosive energies of Mumbai city with its dynamism, scintillation and resplendence. Drawing on earlier experiments with abstract painting, nature and travel metaphors, these new paintings communicate a heightened awareness of how abstract painting can express a contemporary condition.
Traversations, 2006
Traversations combine the idea of “travel” and “conversations” to explore the kinetic nature of migration and sustained internal dialogues with oneself. The artist had just moved from the United States to India and these painterly experiments revisit abstract painting’s ability to explore the personal experience of being in a place that is at once foreign, but familiar.
Between the Lines, 2006
Between the Lines is inspired by the running (or “kantha”) stitch that is emblematic of the textile traditions of Bengal. The artist was living in Kolkata for a brief time in 2006 and these paintings locate a specific point of departure; however, while the stylistic iconography is unique in the artist’s oeuvre, a new preoccupation with visual rhythms and patterns starts to emerge.
Crossroads, 2003-2004
Crossroads investigates a significant inflection point in the artist’s life related to cultural identity and migration. She combines her figurative sensibilities and draftsmanship skills with a painterly, abstract language using a monochromatic palette and densely worked surfaces rendered with oil and wax to create narratives about dislocation. The series was awarded the Joan Mitchell M.F.A. Grant.
Perspectives, 2002
Perspectives was the artist’s first major study using the metaphor of nature to create an abstract language for painting. Sharmistha was primarily a figurative artist when she arrived in New York in 2001; however, the exposure to contemporary abstraction in New York extended her desire to explore a form of painting that could express a limitless condition.
Selected Paintings, 2001-2010
Selected Paintings reflects highlights from the artist’s studies and experiments with abstract painting over the years. At times, the works reveal a fluid painterly application creating a translucent film, and at other times, they reveal layered, impasto techniques. The images oscillate between the figurative and the abstract.
Mythologies, 2002
Mythologies is a selection of Sharmistha’s figurative work before she entered into the realm of abstract painting. These large-format charcoal and gouache works explore Indian myths and legends to engage contemporary narratives about social and cultural anxiety in a post-9/11 era. The creatures in these works appear to be human but to embody animalistic and hybrid features, rendering them grotesque.
