Mequitta Ahuja, Portfolio and Proposal 2019
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<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong><br />
Selected Paintings<br />
2017/2018/<strong>2019</strong>
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, Seated Scribe (Pomegranate Molasses) oil on canvas, 84”X80”2018
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, Seated Scribe (Sesame Paste) oil on canvas, 84”X80”2018
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, 40 Elum, oil on canvas, 42”X40” 2018
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, Sales Slip, oil on canvas, 84”X80” 2017
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, Close Quote, oil on canvas, 84”X80” 2017
Baltimore-based painter <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong> turns the artist’s self-portrait, especially the<br />
woman-of-color’s self-portrait, which has long been defined by identity, into a discourse<br />
on picture-making. Of South Asian <strong>and</strong> African American descent, the artist positions<br />
herself boldly within her compositions, but makes the turn away from subjectivity by<br />
focusing on painting as a received form. She visually catalogs painting conventions,<br />
established over centuries while using those conventions to make new meanings.<br />
<strong>Ahuja</strong> is the recipient of the 2018 Guggenheim fellowship award. She studied at<br />
Hampshire College (BA,1998) <strong>and</strong> the University of Illinois (MFA,2003). <strong>Ahuja</strong>'s works<br />
have been widely exhibited in institutions <strong>and</strong> galleries including Brooklyn Museum,<br />
Studio Museum in Harlem, Saatchi Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Crystal<br />
Bridges, Baltimore Museum of Art <strong>and</strong> Gr<strong>and</strong> Rapids Art Museum.<br />
In large scale paintings, <strong>Ahuja</strong> simplifies form, <strong>and</strong> includes common motifs of the<br />
figurative tradition such as h<strong>and</strong> gestures, swags of fabric, meeting the viewer’s gaze,<br />
creased paper presented as trompe l’oeil, architecture that frames a narrative, onepoint<br />
perspective <strong>and</strong> the allegorical figure. <strong>Ahuja</strong> emphasizes both the conceptual <strong>and</strong><br />
physical work of painting by showing her subject reading, writing <strong>and</strong> h<strong>and</strong>ling<br />
canvases in the studio. With pictures within pictures, she depicts paintings’ many<br />
genres —abstraction, text, naturalism, schematic description, graphic flatness <strong>and</strong><br />
illusion. <strong>Ahuja</strong> repurposes painting ideas <strong>and</strong> approaches across time <strong>and</strong> geography<br />
including Egyptian form, Giotto frescoes, Hindu figuration <strong>and</strong> early American<br />
painting. She positions this variety of artistic types within the context of figurative<br />
painting <strong>and</strong> replaces the common self-portrait motif, the artist st<strong>and</strong>ing before the<br />
easel, with a broad portrait of the work of painting. By working strategically within<br />
paintings’ many forms <strong>and</strong> varied pasts, <strong>Ahuja</strong> knits her contemporary concerns,<br />
personal <strong>and</strong> painterly into the centuries old conversation of representation.<br />
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, <strong>2019</strong>
From left: “Sales Slip,” “Birthright,” <strong>and</strong> “Close Quote” at the Walters Art Museum, 2017<br />
“A Real Allegory of Her Studio,” “Seated Scribbler” <strong>and</strong> “Author” at Stone Center<br />
Gallery, 2017
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, Exhibition <strong>Proposal</strong>: Xpect<br />
In the project Xpect <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong> uses Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Aviginon as a foil to explore the physical<br />
<strong>and</strong> psychic territory of sexual reproduction. The project starts with Le Damn (page 4) in which the artist<br />
reframes from a female perspective, the content of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon. By recasting the<br />
figures in Les Demoiselles D’Avignon with her own body, a woman of color as both subject <strong>and</strong> artist, <strong>Ahuja</strong><br />
reclaims the territory Picasso borrowed from the black body <strong>and</strong> from black creative production. The artist<br />
does this as an act of decolonization. By shifting the perspective of the gaze from man looking at woman to<br />
woman analyzing <strong>and</strong> presenting her own experience with her body, <strong>Ahuja</strong>’s work is a corrective to Picasso’s<br />
sexual objectification of women. In Xpect <strong>and</strong> Le Damn Revisited, <strong>Ahuja</strong> depicts her subject, herself, in front of<br />
<strong>and</strong> updating the content of Le Damn. Xpect <strong>and</strong> Le Damn Revisited announce her 2018/19 pregnancy <strong>and</strong><br />
reshape the emotional tenor of Le Damn. This project includes 4-5 paintings <strong>and</strong> 6-8 studies.<br />
Le Damn Revisited, oil on canvas, 84”X72” 2018
Xpect, oil on canvas, 84”x72” 2018
aMother, oil on canvas, 84”X80” <strong>2019</strong><br />
Studio snapshot
aMother, study I, charcoal on paper, 25”X23.75” 2018 a Mother, study III, charcoal on paper, 25”X23.75” 2018<br />
Le Damn Revisited, Study, charcoal on paper, 36”X24” 2018 Xpect, Study, charcoal on paper, 32.5”X28” 2018 Son of a Mother, Charcoal on Paper, 29.5”X27.5” <strong>2019</strong><br />
Le Damn, Study, colored pencil on paper, 2018 Crying Portrait, oil on canvas, 42”X40” 2018
Le Damn, oil on canvas, 80”X84” 2018
Pictured Right: Son of a Mother, Oil on Canvas, 84”X80” <strong>2019</strong><br />
<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, Curriculum Vitae<br />
1998 BA, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA<br />
2003 MFA, University of Illinois at Chicago<br />
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES<br />
2018 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellow<br />
2015 Dora Maar Fellowship, Artist in Residence, Menerbes, France<br />
2014 Siena Art Institute, Artist in Residence: Project Fellow, Siena, Italy<br />
2011-12 MICA, Stewart McMillan Artist in Residence, Baltimore, MD<br />
2009-10 Studio Museum in Harlem, Artist-in-Residence, New York, NY<br />
2006-08 Core Program, Artist-in-Residence, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX<br />
SOLO EXHIBITIONS<br />
2018 Notations Tiwani Contemporary, London, United Kingdom<br />
2018 Held Art Brussels, Tiwani Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium<br />
2017 Meaningful Fictions <strong>and</strong> Figurative Tradition Sonja Haynes Stone Center, Chapel Hill, NC<br />
2015 Automythography The Dodd Contemporary Art Center, Athens, GA<br />
2013 <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong> Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY<br />
2012 <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong> <strong>and</strong> Robert Pruitt Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA (two-person show)<br />
2010 Trois Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France.
2010 Automythography II Arthouse, Austin, TX<br />
2009 Automythography I BravinLee Programs, NY, NY<br />
2008 Flowback Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX<br />
2007 Encounters BravinLee Programs, NY, NY<br />
2005 Dancing on the Hide of Shere Khan 12X12, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL<br />
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS<br />
2020 Riffs <strong>and</strong> Relations: African American Artists <strong>and</strong> the European Modernist Tradition The Phillips<br />
Collection, Washington, DC<br />
<strong>2019</strong> Feminist Histories Museum of Sao Paulo (MASP), Brazil<br />
Intricacies Aicon Gallery, NY<br />
An Essential Presence: The Petrucci Family Foundation Collection, Allentown Art Museum, PA<br />
Eye Contact Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, (PAFA), Philadelphia, PA<br />
2018 About Face Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa<br />
For Freedom’s 50 States Initiative, Billboard in Des Moines, IA<br />
Embodied Politic Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL<br />
Infinite Spaces: Rediscovering PAFA’s Permanent Collection, Philadelphia, PA<br />
2017 The Art World We Want Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadephia, PA<br />
A Space for Thought Br<strong>and</strong> New Gallery, Milan, Italy<br />
American African American Phillips, London, UK<br />
Engender Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA<br />
Lucid Dreams <strong>and</strong> Distant Visions: South Asian Art in the Diaspora Asia Society, NY<br />
Sondheim Exhibition Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD<br />
Face to Face, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA<br />
Shifting: African-American Women <strong>and</strong> the Power of their Gaze, Driskell Center, MD<br />
2016 Past/Present/Future Gr<strong>and</strong> Rapids Art Museum, MI<br />
Champagne Life Saatchi Gallery, London<br />
2015 Sondheim Finalist Exhibition Baltimore Museum of Art, MD<br />
Mythopoeia Tiwani Contemporary, London<br />
2014 State of the Art Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR<br />
If You Build It No Longer Empty, NY<br />
Marks of Genius: One Hundred Extraordinary Drawings Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN<br />
Leaves Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, NY<br />
How The Light Gets In Glassell School of Art, TX<br />
2013 Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge Arkansas Arts Center, AR<br />
War Baby/Love Child DePaul University Art Museum, IL<br />
Mixtopias Visarts, MD<br />
2012 The Bearden Project The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY<br />
Portraiture Now: Drawing on the Edge Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery Washington, DC.<br />
In Between Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Belgium.<br />
Sleeping Inside Our Bodies Union Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin, WI<br />
The Human Touch The Blanton Museum of Art, TX<br />
Red Maison Particuliere, Belgium<br />
2011 Collected: Ritual Studio Museum in Harlem, NY<br />
Drawings for the New Century Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN<br />
2010 Usable Pasts (Artists in Residence Exhibition) Studio Museum in Harlem, NY<br />
Body of Work (Women to Watch) National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC<br />
Art on Paper Weatherspoon Art Museum, NC<br />
Weaving in <strong>and</strong> Out No Longer Empty, NY
Until Now: Collecting the New (1960- 2010) Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN<br />
New Works for the Collection Blanton Museum of Art, TX<br />
2009 Undercover Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts, GA<br />
Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC<br />
Anomalies Rossi <strong>and</strong> Rossi Gallery, London<br />
Wonder What The Others Are Up To Gallery OED, Cochin, India<br />
$timulus Artadia Awardees Exhbiition Diverseworks, TX<br />
The Talented Ten Deborah Colton Gallery, TX<br />
2008 Houston Collects Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX<br />
2007 Global Feminisms Brooklyn Museum, NY<br />
Painters <strong>and</strong> Poets Ulrich Museum, KS<br />
2006 Chimaera Tenri Cultural Institute of New York, NY<br />
New Art Event Ulrich Museum, KS<br />
Spirit <strong>and</strong> Psyche: The Figure Transformed Highl<strong>and</strong> Park Art Center, IL<br />
2005 d’Afrique d’Asie Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, NY<br />
Representations Contemporary Art Workshop, IL<br />
2004 Baltimore/Chicago Maryl<strong>and</strong> Institute College of Art, MD<br />
INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS<br />
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX<br />
Clevel<strong>and</strong> Clinic, Clevel<strong>and</strong>, OH<br />
GAE LLC, an affiliate of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR<br />
David C. Driskell Center, College Park, MD<br />
Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX<br />
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN<br />
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA<br />
Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, Asbury, NJ<br />
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA<br />
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Wealth Management<br />
Saatchi Gallery, London, UK<br />
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY<br />
Ulrich Museum, Wichita, KS<br />
U.S. State Department, Mumbai Consulate, India<br />
U.S. State Department, New Delhi, India<br />
AWARDS<br />
2018 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellow<br />
2013 Maryl<strong>and</strong> Individual Artist Award<br />
2011 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award<br />
2009 Joan Mitchell Award<br />
2008 Artadia Award, Houston<br />
2008 Cornelia <strong>and</strong> Meredith Long Prize, Inaugural Recipient<br />
2003 Chicago Civic Arts Foundation Visual Arts Competition, First Place<br />
2002 University of Illinois Diversity Fellowship<br />
ARTIST TALKS<br />
Brooklyn Museum<br />
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
DePaul Museum of Art<br />
De Young Museum<br />
Harvard University<br />
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA)<br />
Maryl<strong>and</strong> Institute College of Art (MICA)<br />
Minneapolis Institute of Art<br />
Northwestern University<br />
Siena Art Institute (Italy)<br />
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery<br />
Stone Center, UNC, Chapel Hill<br />
Studio Museum in Harlem<br />
Walters Art Museum<br />
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY<br />
2015 Saatchi Gallery Champagne Life Natasha Hoare, p. 11-25<br />
2014 Crystal Bridges State of the Art Don Bacigalupi <strong>and</strong> Chad Alligood<br />
2014 Minneapolis Institute of Arts Master Drawings Rachel McGarry <strong>and</strong> Tom Rassieur, Tress IV p.273<br />
2014 Callaloo: Art <strong>and</strong> Culture in the African Diaspora Volume 37, Number 4, p. 889-893<br />
2014 Point of View: African American Art from the Elliot <strong>and</strong> Kimberly Perry Collection Tress II p.85<br />
2013 Blanton Museum of Art 110 Favorites From the Collection Simone F. Wicha Parade p.108<br />
2013 DePaul Art Museum War Baby Love Child Laura Kina <strong>and</strong> WeiMing Dariotis, Front cover, about, 197;<br />
Automythography, 17, 197, 198; Dream Region, 198-99, 259n1, plate 32; hybrid vision of self, 188;<br />
interview, 197-99; Spark, 4-5, 198-99, plate 1<br />
2013 Callaloo: Arts <strong>and</strong> Letters of the African Diaspora Volume 36, Number 2, Cover: Royal Ease, Surge<br />
2012 The Studio Museum in Harlem The Bearden Project Thelma Golden <strong>and</strong> Lauren Haynes, Epilogue p.35<br />
2012 Art <strong>and</strong> Social Justice Education: Culture as Commons “<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>: Afrogalaxy” Romi Crawford<br />
2010 The Studio Museum in Harlem Re: Collection “Kerry James Marshall” essay by <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong> p.98<br />
2009 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Collecting African American Art Alvia Wardlaw, Back cover, p. 90-91<br />
2009 Callaloo: Arts <strong>and</strong> Letters of the African Diaspora Volume 32, Number 1, Off the Edge p.279<br />
2007 Brooklyn Museum Global Feminisms Maura Reilly <strong>and</strong> Linda Nochlin, Bio p.267 Boogie Woogie p.169<br />
2007 Ulrich Museum Poets <strong>and</strong> Painters Katie Geha, Tsunami Generation p.28. with poet Eric Baus p.29<br />
SELECTED PRESS<br />
2018 The Paris Review, The Daily, Notations by <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, June 11<br />
The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Painter is Among the 2018 Guggenheim Fellows, Sarah Meehan, April 16<br />
2017 The New Yorker, Goings on About Town: Lucid Dreams <strong>and</strong> Distant Visions, July 24<br />
2015 City Paper “Sondheim Finalists 2015: <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>'s allegorical oil paintings reference art history's<br />
canon <strong>and</strong> reclaim the artist's agency” Maura Callahan, July 7<br />
2014 ARTnews.com “101 Women Artists Who Got Wikipedia Pages This Week” Robin Cembalast, Feb 6<br />
Star Tribune “The Genius of Drawing” Mary Abbe, July 11<br />
2013 The Chicago Tribune “‘War Baby’ is Something to See if You Can Let Go” Lori Waxman, May 8<br />
Gallerist NY “<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong> at Thierry Goldberg Gallery” Will Heinrich, Nov 26<br />
Face to Face: (Smithsonian blog) “Beneath the Surface: An Unusual Installation” Warren Perry, 4/26<br />
The Georgetowner “Portraiture Now at the National Portrait Gallery” Ari Post, Jan 16<br />
Examiner.com “Drawing on the Edge: Six Voices at the National Portrait Gallery” Brett Busang, Jan 7<br />
The In Towner “Museums: National Portrait Gallery” Anthony L. Harvey, January, Vol. 44, # 7<br />
Vocolo 90.7FM “War Baby/Love Child” Interview with Brian Babylon, May 16<br />
The Washington Post Editor’s Picks: “In Fact There Is Fiction on Display” Michael O’Sulivan, Dec 7<br />
2010 The International Review of African American Art “Usable Pasts…” Cherilyn Wright, 23.1<br />
Art Practical “From New York: Usable Pasts” Christine Wong, Sept 10,<br />
Thirteen New York Public Media “Sunday Arts News” September 19
The New Yorker “Usable Pasts” Vince Aletti, August 18<br />
ARTnews “Artists to Watch: The Key to Her Locks” Rachel Wolff, February, p. 76-77<br />
MW Capacity “Q&A with <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>” Chris Lowrance, April 22<br />
Art Lies “Usable Pasts: The Studio Museum in Harlem” John Ewing, No. 67 Fall/Winter, p.94-95<br />
Might be Good “Interview: <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>” Wendy Vogel, Oct 29, Issue #156<br />
Examiner.com “New Works for the Blanton Collection” Shannon Moore, Aug 12<br />
2009 Houston Public Radio KUHF “The Front Row” Meghan H<strong>and</strong>ley, Jan 6<br />
Houston Chronicle “Artwork is a Reflection of its Audience” Douglas Britt, Jan 8, p.E2<br />
Saatchi Online Critic’s Choice “<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>” Rebecca Wilson, March 16<br />
Artforum.com “Undercover: Performing <strong>and</strong> Transforming Black Female Identities” Rebecca D.Cochran<br />
Might be Good “Project Space: <strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>” Nicole Caruth, April 10, Issue #120<br />
2008 ABC 13 News “MFAH Houston Collects” Laura Whitley, October 15<br />
2007 The New York Times “Last Chance” Holl<strong>and</strong> Cotter, June 1<br />
Art News “We’re Finally Infiltrating” Phoebe Hoban, February, p.112<br />
Modern Painters “VIVA” Carrie Moyer, March, p.77
©<strong>Mequitta</strong> <strong>Ahuja</strong>, <strong>2019</strong><br />
www.mequittaahuja.com
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