Avantika Bawa

Avantika Bawa
Bawa at the Portland Art Museum, 2018
Born
Ootacamund, India
Alma mater

Avantika Bawa (born 1973) is an Indian American artist, curator, and professor of art.[1][2] Bawa is a multidisciplinary artist who works primarily in site-specific installation, video, printmaking, and drawing.[3] She is the recipient of the 2018 Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts Golden Spot Residency Award, the Hallie Ford Fellowship in the Visual Arts, and the Oregon Arts Commission Joan Shipley Award.[3][4]

Education

Bawa has an MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Maharaja Sayajirao University.[5]

Career

Bawa is an associate professor of art at Washington State University Vancouver,[6] and serves on the board of the Oregon Arts Commission.[7] She has had solo exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, Suyama Space in Seattle; Saltworks Gallery in Atlanta; Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center in Portland, Oregon; and Gallery Maskara in Mumbai, India.[8][4]

Bawa is also one of the founders of Drain - A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture, an online journal that explores creative perspectives on contemporary culture.[9] In 2019, she was commissioned to make a game day poster for the Portland Trail Blazers January 9 game against the Chicago Bulls.[10]

Work

Themes

Bawa's work responds to and incorporates architectural spaces and styles.[11] She draws from Minimalism and Abstraction for inspiration.[2] Her work for Disjecta Art Center's 2016 Portland Biennial was installed in the vacant Astor Hotel in Astoria, Oregon. Bawa created a large golden scaffold that was accompanied by audio recordings of construction.[12]

Exhibitions

In 2018, Bawa had a solo exhibition of drawings and prints of the Portland Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Portland Art Museum, as part of the APEX series curated by Grace Kook-Anderson.[11] She also had a concurrent exhibition at Ampersand Gallery that culminated in the publication of an artist's book.[3] In 2017 she exhibited Parallel Faults at Los Angeles Valley College in Valley Glen, California[13] Her work was included in the 2016 Portland Biennial, curated by Michelle Grabner.[1] Between 2014 and 2015, Bawa showed her project Aqua Mapping in the Whitebox Gallery in Portland, Oregon and Saltworks Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.[14][15] In 2012, Bawa exhibited a large scale, site-specific installation called At Owner's Risk at Suyama Space in Seattle, Washington, that responded to the current and historical uses of the space: an architecture firm, an auto body shop, and a livery stable.[16] In 2009, her show Mathesis: dub, dub dub, was exhibited at Gallery Maskara, in Mumbai, India[17]

Personal life

Bawa was born in Ootacamund, India.[18] She lives and works in Portland, Oregon, also frequently spending time in New Delhi.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b "Avantika Bawa | Portland2016". Portland2016. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  2. ^ a b Cotter, Holland (25 June 2005). "Where Drawing Is What Counts". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "Coliseum - Avantika Bawa". Ampersand Gallery & Fine Books. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Avantika Bawa | Oregon Arts Commission". www.oregonartscommission.org. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Artist Talk: Avantika Bawa". portlandartmuseum.org. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  6. ^ "Avantika Bawa - Directory - WSU Vancouver". directory.vancouver.wsu.edu. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  7. ^ Dispatches, News. "Avantika Bawa Named to Oregon Arts Commission". India West. Retrieved 10 March 2018. {{cite news}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ "Avantika Bawa | Oregon Arts Commission". www.oregonartscommission.org. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  9. ^ "About | Drain Magazine". drainmag.com. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  10. ^ "Gameday Posters". Portland Trail Blazers. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  11. ^ a b "APEX: Avantika Bawa". Portland Art Museum. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  12. ^ "The cellular memory of place, Part Two | Oregon ArtsWatch". www.orartswatch.org. Archived from the original on 30 May 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  13. ^ "LAVC Art Gallery: Los Angeles Valley College". www.lavc.edu. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  14. ^ "White BoxAvantika Bawa | White Box". whitebox.uoregon.edu. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  15. ^ "Aqua Mapping | SALTWORKS". SALTWORKS. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  16. ^ "Suyama Space | Installations | Avantika Bawa At Owners Risk". www.suyamaspace.org. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  17. ^ "Gallery Maskara: Exhibition: Mathesis: dub, dub, dub". www.gallerymaskara.com. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  18. ^ "Gallery Maskara: Artist: Avantika Bawa". www.gallerymaskara.com. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  19. ^ "Avantika Bawa | pdx contemporary art". pdxcontemporaryart.com. Retrieved 10 March 2018.