Artists Statement:

My latest body of work focuses on drawings as alphabets and symbols. The work draws on my experiences of learning to write in Hindi as a child, my fascination with the fonts on billboards, and the script in my mother’s personal letters to my father. They also incorporate my recent work in etching, and my learning to draw through the figure, as an art student. I am interested in creating symbols that don’t have any formal meaning.

Artist Bio:

After graduating from NYU, I studied painting at the Art Students League of New York. I  received a MacDowell Traveling Grant, and a Fulbright Fellowship for my work. In the summer of 2004 I began meeting artists in Harlem with the intention of organizing an open studio tour. Since then, I have successfully organized three open studios, incorporated artHARLEM as a Not-for-Profit, and curated exhibitions of contemporary art in Harlem. I have a Masters in Art and Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and I teach art at Explorations Academy, a public high school in the South Bronx. I live with his wife and daughter in Harlem, New York.

Experience

• 6/04 Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour - Founder, Director.
  A grassroots organization dedicated to unite and promote the visual artists of Harlem through an annual open studio tour. The 1st Annual Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour will be held on April 30 - May 1, 2005.
    
• 5/99 Reuben Sinha Stained Glass Studio
  Operates a commissioned art glass studio to design and fabricate site specific stained glass panels. Private instruction and classes held at the studio.
    
• 12/2001-1/2003 Drawing Instructor, Spring studio
  Spring Studio, 64 Spring Street, New York, NY, is a life drawing studio open to professionals and students of all levels. Lectures and demonstrations on principles of composition, line and color from Eastern and Western Art and human anatomy. Individual instruction and critiques on drawing from the human figure.
    
• 7/95-9/2000 Freelance Graphic Design
  Design & pre-press production of magazines, catalogs, packaging, brochures, posters, press kits, and all other print media using Quark-X, Illustrator & Photoshop.
  Production Designer: Creative Media group of American Express (1/00 - 8/00)
  Assistant Art Director and Head of Production on Spiegel's Fall 1999 catalog for Smatt Florence Inc. (4/99-1/00)
  Clients include: American Express, SFI, Spiegel, Caché, Rich's department stores & Fortunoff, Creative Network Systems, D.F. White- MPC, Frontier Communications, Masala Communications, Peterson's group & American Cancer Society.
   
• 7/95- 6/97 Art Director - Masala Magazine
  Created the visual style and content of 'MASALA', lifestyles magazine about 2nd-generation Indian-Americans, with 30,000 readership. Designed graphic and type layout of all editorial content, solicited and coordinated work with illustrators, photographers, graphic designers and journalists, directed all pre-press production. Wrote about contemporary and classical Southeast-Asian arts.
    
• 1/94- 6/94 Art Teacher - Prasanna Jyoti, Bangalore, India
  Taught painting and drawing to 25 girls between ages 5 and 15 at Prasanna Jyoti, a children's orphanage.

Exhibition

• 11/04 'Montclair State University Art Market 2004 , Group show, University Art Gallery, Upper Montclair, NJ.
• 09/04 'Erasing Borders - Passport to Contemporary Indian Arts , Group show, Indo-American Arts Council, Inc., NY, NY.
• 6/04 ‘Open Studio’, 15 th Annual Mt. Morris Park Historic Home Tour, New York, NY
• 9/03 'Confrontations & Revelations’, Solo Exhibition, Carroll Community College, Westminster, MD.
• 11/01 'Wish you were here', NYFA & Thompson Street Business Assiciation Group exhibition, fundraiser for 9-11-01 at Thompson Street Stores, New York, NY.
• 11/98 'Mostly Portraits', solo exhibition at Spring Studio, 64 Spring St, New York, NY.
• 5/98, 6/98 'Solo Exhibitions', Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore & Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi, India.
• 1/97 'Group Exhibition', Indian Mission to the United Nations, New York, NY
• 1/96 'AT&T's Artist of the Month', http://www.att.com/indiahorizons
• 9/95 'MacDowell Scholars Exhibition', Art Students League of New York
• 5/95 'Four Asian Artists At Work', Columbia University, New York, NY
• 10/93 'Group exhibition', RHL Gallery, Bangalore, India

Education & Awards

• 9/97-7/98- U.S. Fulbright Fellowship to paint and study Tantric Art in India
• 8/92-6/94- Edward G. MacDowell Travelling Grant to study and Paint in Europe and India
• 10/88-6/95- Arts Students League of New York. Studied painting, drawing and sculpture. Recipient of Merit Scholarships for full time study.
• 5/88- New York University. Bachelor of Arts in Art History. Strong background in Micro-Biology.