About
About
Trisha Gupta
Trisha Gupta is a contemporary artist, community activist, and educator. Her Indian-American heritage heavily influences her work, and she explores themes of mental health and immigration.
Trisha's dedication to preserving traditional folk art and fine Indian printmaking is a cornerstone of her practice. After being trained in the Western tradition of woodblock printing, she returned to Ahmedabad to delve into the art of Indian Woodblock carving. She has since made it a part of her practice to teach Asian printmaking processes like Indian woodblock printing and viscosity, sharing her expertise with institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and Pyramid Atlantic.
She believes in art as a platform for social change. As an Occupational Therapy candidate at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, she has taught art to diverse populations in schools, homeless shelters, and off Rikers Island. She has also run events at the Sandy Spring Museum and VisArts in partnership with Amnesty International. Her project, A Table for Everyone, hosted community dinners and public art projects to introduce new immigrants to the community. She has also created public programming for museums like the KidMuseum to promote South Asian Printmaking. She runs a community studio with a printshop and resident artists in Burtonsville, Maryland where she teaches printmaking and indian block printing. Her studio is a heritage site that promotes cross-cultural learning.
She received her graduate degree from MICA in 2024. Her work is listed in the New York Public Library collection, the Art Students League, and in collections internationally and domestically.
Artist Statement
As a multidisciplinary artist, all of my work is rooted in the concept of neurodivergence. As a neurodivergent immigrant woman, I returned to my art halfway through my medical degree to express narratives outside of a clinical context. Having trained as an occupational therapist with a strong background in art therapy, I glean concepts for my artwork from my clients. My clients have experienced incarceration, mental illness, neurological disorders, and physical health problems. Their stories are emblematic of the social norms that result in disparities and unjust outcomes. These disparities are used to inform my paintings, sculptures, prints, videos, and textiles.
My personal studio work is focused on prints, soft sculpture, installation, and other media that often depict body parts or architecture. For example, in my collagraphs and fabric work, my pieces are often informed by medical diagrams. I layer and combine delicate and transparent materials with dense and solid objects. I sometimes use intricate paper cuts, and on other occasions, use spontaneous found objects to show a balance between traditional and modern, trash and treasure, and synthetic versus organic. This results in intricate objects that represent flora, fauna, and the physical structures of the body. In contrast, my architectural work has an ethereal Asian aesthetic that depicts a sense of longing to find belonging.
Most of my work relies on a strong Indian palette. I often naturally dye my fabrics and create milled pigment inks. Vermillion, turmeric, indigo, and black iron pigments are distilled from plants, and powdered by employing the split lake dye pigmentation process. These four colors are heritage colors that are achieved through the distillation of mordants, dehydration of plants and the milling of pigments. I use yellow to represent turmeric and the soothing of pain. Indigo depicts brown and black skin, and divinity and ethnic darkness. Lighter shades of indigo depict medical blue. Vermillion depicts femininity. Each color is like an anthem that all these narratives share, in which an individual expresses power by being themselves and acknowledging their diversity.
I am also a community-based art activist whose projects work with participants over time to help them process loss, facilitate healing, and to collaboratively create public art. The process of creating the artwork involves the participant as a collaborator to explore narratives that critique socially complex issues like racism, sexism, and incarceration.
As my art practice evolves, I have embraced the role of a storyteller - a socially engaged one. These tangible works bring awareness to hidden experiences narrated by people outside of the bell curve. Ultimately, I aim to bring compassion and justice to marginalized groups.
Press
Press
-
Do You Know Her?
March 2022. Women's History Month commemorates the sacrifices made BY women and FOR women to help make the world, and our country, a more inclusive place. "Do You Know Her" is an interview series created by Sandra Davis, WCADC Exhibitions Chair.
This month Sandra interviewed local members, Trisha Gupta, Juliet Drake Hossain, and Shelley Lowenstein — each having a nod to science in their work, incorporating the human body, cellular design, and environmental aspects in their art practices. Watch here.
-
Sisterhood
2021, Kentlands Mansion Gallery, Gaithersburg, MD
In this interview Trisha discusses the concept of sisterhood and reflects on how her work has reflected conversations her and her sister have had. The pieces in this show feature strong work by a group of artists that know each other and often work together. These artists represent the idea of strong female voices and the power of narrative.
-
This is Gaithersburg
2021, Bohrer Park Gallery, Gaithersburg, MD
Trisha Gupta was featured in a group exhibition at the Boher activity center called “This is Gaithersburg”. The work in this exhibition highlighted artists and their work in reaction to the COVID pandemic and racial protests during 2021. View here.
-
C'est la Vision
2021, Arts in Color, Washington , DC
-
Thanksgiving for Everyone
2019, Sandy Spring, MD, Sandy Spring Museum
Trisha Gupta was the lead facilitator and artist for a table for everyone. This project that has expanded across three years of work. Read more here.
-
Just under 100: New Prints Summer 2017
2017, IPCNY, New York, NY
This show was composed of under 100 artists who participated in a show JURIED by WHO?
-
Saatchi Art
-
Women in the Artworld: Interview
In this interview Trisha discusses her role as an artist and an Indian American. She talks about her struggle to become a professional artist, and how she educates her community about the role of artists as serious career professionals. Watch here.
-
Maryland Traditions Awardee
Trisha Gupta was an awardee for the Maryland State Arts Council Apprenticeship Award Program. Trisha trained apprentice Bonnie, in the art of natural dyeing, mordant printing, and heritage Indian woodblock work. Here is an interview about their collaboration.
-
Proteyo Ace Frontier
Ciudad de Buenos Aires , Argentina. As a group of three artists, we found commonality in our lack of interest in linear narratives. We were interested in how a circle or an object in motion breaks free from its static shape. I worked on creating brain sculptures and breaking, dividing, and moving them to have them reform or fall apart. Learn more.
-
Contemporary Impressions
Contemporary Impressions was an invitational exhibition that travelled to Shanghai China.
-
Helen’s Dress
An innovative digital residency program for artists (e-Residency) in Vamvakou, Laconia. Learn more.
-
Smithsonian Associates Instructor
Trisha Gupta is an instructor for the teaching classes through the Freer Sackler gallery with the Smithsonian associates program. This program brings master cultural artists in contact with Smithsonian viewers. Participants have taken offerings like authentic Indian woodblock Printing. Learn more.
-
Why do foreign backpackers not visit Taiwan?
This documentary, shot in Taiwan, was part of the Yerdo Design competition in Topex, Taiwan. Trisha was a featured backpacker who visited Taiwan and the island of Lanyu. She was filmed for 2 weeks. She spent a majority of her time with the Danyu people on the island of Lanyy. Her time on the island of Lanyu and her interaction with the community was one of the greatest inspirations for her views on community practice in future works. She created a series of work that was included in the competition that described the unique nature of Lanyu culturally and acovicated for it to be heritage site that should be preserved for generations. Watch here.
-
The Textile Center
Trisha was awarded a scholarship to participate in the textile immersion free motion quilting mini residency through the Textile Arts center. Trisha worked with free motion quilting, and sculptural embroidery to make this piece. This piece is from an immigrant woman who describes the effort of walking during her forced migration to the United states from South America. She broke her wrist, and one of her children was separated from her. She describes how her body felt injured and abused.
-
Smithsonian Associates Program Instructor
Trisha Gupta is an instructor for the teaching classes through the Freer Sackler gallery with the Smithsonian Associates Program. This program brings master cultural artists in contact with Smithsonian viewers. Participants have taken offerings like authentic Indian woodblock Printing. Trisha teaches an advanced figure drawing class based off of her dissection classes at the college of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, and her work as an artist drawing from life and training at the Art students League in New York. View program guide.
Studio Address
1353 U Street NW,
Studio 2 Hamiltonian,
Washington DC, 20006
Contact
IG @ trishaguptaart FB @ trishaguptastudio
Email
tgupta14620@gmail.com