Octopus Initiative Artist Suchitra Mattai
Suchtra Mattai’s work explores how memory and myth allow us to unravel and re-imagine historical narratives. She gives voice to people whose voices were once quieted by focusing on oral histories and family archives. By incorporating culture and personal research and artifacts into her work, she seeks to expand our sense of “history”, re-writing colonial history to make visible the struggles and perseverance of those who lived it. She often focusses on women’s labor and employ practices and materials associated with the domestic sphere such as embroidery, weaving, and fiber elements. She re-imagines vintage and found materials that have a rich past, to create a dialogue with the original makers and the time periods in which they were cherished as well as a means of navigating her personal narrative.
Mattai was born in 1973, in Georgetown, Guyana, and currently lives in Los Angeles. She received an MFA in painting and drawing and an MA in South Asian art, both from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. She has exhibited in Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Denver, and Austin, as well as in Berlin, London, and Wales. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the MCA Chicago, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, MCA Denver, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Sharjah Biennial 14 and solo exhibitions at the Boise Museum of Art, Roberts Projects, and Kavi Gupta Gallery. Her works are represented in the collections of the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Joselyn Museum, the Tia Collection, the Perez Collection, the Shah Garg collection, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
