Education
1998 Master of Science- Analysis, Design & Management of Information Systems, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK
1997 Post Graduate Diploma in World Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK
1996 Bachelor of Arts (Economics), St. Xavier’s College, University of Bombay, India. Top 3% of graduating class. Related Professional Art Experience
2006 South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC), New York, NY, Board Member
Co-curated and Produced the SAWCC’s Annual art exhibition ‘In a State of Emergency: Women, War & the Politics of Urban, Survival, Alwan Art Centre (catalogue published)
Exhibitions:
2024
Art Dubai, Shrine Empire, Dubai, UAE
2023
Art Mumbai, Shrine Empire, Maharashtra, India
India Art Fair, Shrine Empire, New Delhi, India
Delhi Contemporary Art Week, New Delhi, India
AGA Khan Centre, ‘Seeds, Trees and Montain’ London, UK
Visual Arts Center ‘Search for the Empyrean’, NJ, USA
2022
India Art Fair, Shrine Empire, New Delhi, India
Delhi Contemporary Art Week, New Delhi, India
MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, ‘Residues & Resonances’, Turin, Italy
‘Order/Reorder’, curated by Laura Vookles & Bentley Brown, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
‘Pilgrim, Saint, Scholar, Sinner’, a compendium of works, Shrine Empire (Jan 2021 – April 2022)
2021
Museo Camera Inaugural exhibition curated by Rahul Kumar, New Delhi
‘Growth’, curated by Katerina Lafranco, New York, NY
‘The Dawn of Aquarius’ curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala, New York NY
Delhi Contemporary Art Week, Shrine Empire, New Delhi, India
Artissima Art Fair, ‘Hub India: Maximum Minimum’, Turin, Italy
MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, ‘Residues & Resonances, Turin, Italy
The Show Windows, Raw Mango, Mumbai, SQW: Lab 2021 fellowship
2020
India Art Fair, New Delhi, India
Wave Hill Winter Workspace, New York
‘Speculations On A New World Order’ curated by Anushka Rajendran, Shrine Empire
‘Collab’ curated by Jesal Thacker, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
‘Intersections’ / Shrine Empire, In Touch (online exhibition)
‘The wound is the place where the light enters you’; Shrine Empire, In Touch (online exhibition)
2019
Delhi Contemporary Art Week, New Delhi
‘Osmosis’, Group Show curated by Shaleen Wadhwana, Tarq Gallery, Mumbai
India Art Fair, New Delhi, India
Gallery OED, Cochin, India
2018
‘Since Time Immemorial’, Gallery OED, Cochin, India
‘Contain Her’ curated by Katherine Murdock
Trestle Projects, New York, NY
‘Reclaimed Baggage’ curated by Nirmal Raja
NIU Art Museum, DeKalb, Illinois
‘Lapses II’ curated by Anushka Rajendran, Sakshi Art Gallery
India Art Fair, New Delhi, India
2017
Group Show, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai
India Art Fair, with Shrine Empire, New Delhi
2016
‘Reading Room’ curated by Amit Kumar Jain, Saffronart, New York
Art Dubai, with Sakshi Art Gallery, Dubai
India Art Fair with Shrine Empire, New Delhi
Group Show, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai
2015
Art Basel Hong Kong, Shrine Empire, Hong Kong
India Art Fair, Shrine Empire, New Delhi
‘A Journey of Secrets’, Solo exhibition with Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai
‘Reading Room’ curated by Amit Jain, partner exhibition at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi
Other Professional Experience:
2003 Manager- New York, Mid West & Florida region, Triton Container International, New Jersey, USA
2002 Director, Seahorse Group Shipping, Bombay, India
2000 Manager- Investor Relations, ChrysCapital Venture Capital, Bombay, India
1998 Assistant Manager, HDFC Bank- Treasury- Foreign Exchange & Capital Markets Group, Bombay India
Selected Press:
2018 DeKalb Daily Chronicle (March 22)
Highlights from the 2018 edition of the India Art Fair’, The Artling (online art-zine) (February 17)
2016 International Gallerie Magazine ‘Migration’ Vol. 9 No. 1 (Issue July August)
Elle Magazine ‘Hit List, Artists to Catch’ Sharmistha Ray (January)
Holding on to the Elusive’ by Rita Datta, Telegraph India (October)
‘Curator’s Eye View: Are you smart enough to join MENASA, Interview of Art Dubai Director
Antonia Carver’ by Molly (online, artandculture.org.uk, illustrated with my artwork from Art Dubai 2016)
2015 Ideal Home & Garden Magazine, ‘Artist Speak’ Annual Issue (November)
Art Asia Pacific, ‘New Currents’, Katherine Volk (Issue 94, July-August)
MARG: A Magazine of the Arts, ‘Book Art: Contemporary Practices in the Indian Subcontinent’, Amit Kumar Jain & Ruhanie Perera (Vol. 67 No. 1, September-December 2015)
Samanta Batra Mehta grew up in Bombay, India and lives in New York, USA.
Samanta creates multi-layered artwork that is a commentary on the human condition and the environment we inhabit. Themes in identity, personal history, gender constructs, socio-political order and colonial history are depicted and debated in her layered artistic interventions that employ drawing, found objects, text, photo and installation. In a contemporary re-imagining of the ‘exquisite corpse’ genre, she oftentimes re-purposes collected antiquarian objects, imagery and texts along with her own drawings to render
an altered visual engagement in an attempt to construct a reimagined history.
In Samanta’s visual vocabulary, the human form and anatomical imagery is intertwined with foliage and nature. Nature/land/landscape is seen as a metaphor for the body (and vice-versa) and as a site for germination, nourishment, degradation, trespass, plunder, colonization and transgression. Her influences include history, myth, the natural world, medieval illustration, religious iconography and mystical philosophies.
As an Indian artist living in New York for more than a decade, Samanta’s work oftentimes speaks of dislocation and migration. Her work examines what it means to be rooted in a constant state of flux. As an incorrigible collector, her collections (of antiquarian maps, books, engravings and vintage objects) and her resultant artworks, give Samanta a sense of permanence and points of reference in her shifting physical and emotional geographies.
Her first solo, ’Cabinet of Curiosities’, with Shrine Empire, New Delhi in 2014 was nominated for the Forbes India Art Award in the ‘Best Debut Solo’ category. Her second solo ‘The Journey of Secrets’, was at Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai in 2015, and was featured in a solo interview with Bloomberg TV, in the Aspire segment (August 2015). Her third solo project, ‘The Crucible of Fantasy’ was with Shrine Empire Gallery, presented at Art Basel Hong Kong 2015.
Samanta’s work has been showcased by galleries at leading art fairs including at Art Stage, Singapore (2010), India Art Fair, New Delhi (2011-2016), Bologna Arte Fiere 2013, Art Basel Hong Kong in 2014 and 2015 and Art Dubai (2016).
Samanta Batra Mehta’s work has been exhibited in the US and abroad including at the Queens Museum of the Arts, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and Aicon Gallery in New York, the Hunterdon Museum and the Visual Arts Center in New Jersey, the Taubman Museum of Art in Virginia, and Artopia, Milan, among others. In 2010 she was invited by Galerie LMD, Paris to exhibit her work and make a 24-foot-long site-specific mural at the Salon Du Dessin Contemporain, held at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. Her work was
included in the ‘Reading Room’, a Partner Exhibition at the Kochi Biennale 2014 in Kochi, India. The exhibition travelled to the Alliance Francaise Delhi and at Winchester School of Art, United Kingdom in 2015.
She participated at Wave Hill’s 2020 Winter Workspace Residency in New York.
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