Swati Khurana is a writer and contemporary artist of Indian-American origin. She was born in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1975. She emigrated to New York in 1977, where she lives and works. She graduated from

Poughkeepsie Day School Poughkeepsie Day School is an independent, progressive, coeducational school in the mid-Hudson Valley serving students from a broad region of New York and Connecticut from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. History Founded in 1934, it was origi ...

in 1993. She holds a B.A. in history from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, M.A. in Studio Art and Art Criticism from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, and an MFA in creative writing at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

Writing

Her fiction and essays have been published in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

'', ''Chicago Quarterly Review'', '' Asian American Literary Review'', ''The Offing'', ''

The Rumpus ''The Rumpus'' is an online literary magazine launched on January 20, 2009. The site features interviews, book reviews, essays, comics, and critiques of creative culture as well as original fiction and poetry. The site runs two subscription-base ...

'', ''

The Massachusetts Review ''The Massachusetts Review'' is a literary quarterly founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It receives financial support from Five Colleg ...

'', the ''Good Girls Marry Doctors'' anthology, and cited as a Notable Essay in '' Best American Essays 2019''. She has received support from

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

Vermont Studio Center The Vermont Studio Center (VSC) is a non-profit arts organization located in the town of Johnson, Vermont. It conducts the largest fine arts and writing residency program in the United States, with a significant population of international artis ...

, and

Center for Fiction The Center for Fiction, originally called the New York Mercantile Library, is a not-for-profit organization in New York City, with offices at 15 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Prior to their move in early 2018, The Center for Fiction ...

for her creative writing.

Visual Art

Khurana works in embroidery, collage, drawing, and installation, exploring gender and rituals that are particular to Indian immigrant culture. Her videos have been described "delightful, wry" in ''

'' and "dreamy" in ''Time Out New York.'' In the "Texting Scrolls" project, Khurana transcribes viewers' text messages into handmade scrolls. "Texting Scrolls" has been part of the Art in Odd Places festival, Kriti Festival at

University of Illinois-Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...

, "A Bomb, With Ribbon Around It" exhibition at the

Queens Museum The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its pe ...

, DUMBO Arts Festival, and

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

. For Parijat Desai Dance Company, Khurana co-designed projections for 'Songs to Live For' with Neeraj Churi, staged at

Tribeca Performing Arts Center The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) is a public community college in New York City. Founded in 1963 as part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, BMCC grants associate degrees in a wide variety of vocational, busines ...

, where "eternally calm and august figures—exalted Mughal royalty—watch in painted silence as the dancers bring to life scenes of the age-old story of love and devotion." In the essay "Seducing Structures and Stitches: Reappropriating Love, Desire and the Image," Uzma Rizvi wrote that "the stitched canvases of the 'Bridal Trousseau' series are both retro-feminist and very contemporary. Needlework, in itself, is a heavy referent within a

postcolonial feminist Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long- ...

context. These canvases are literally stitched images of the self."

Exhibitions

Khurana has exhibited at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, Exit Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw), and with the South Asian Women's Creative Collective. About her solo exhibition at Chatterjee & Lal in Mumbai, she was "touted as one of the most promising young Indian artists in the international contemporary art scene."

References

External links

Artist Website

''Love Letters & Necessary Fictions''
Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai 2010.

Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami, 2007.

A/P/A Gallery, New York University, 2001. {{DEFAULTSORT:Khurana, Swati 1975 births Indian women contemporary artists Living people Women artists from Delhi Artists from New York City American women artists of Indian descent Feminist artists Columbia College (New York) alumni New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study alumni American contemporary artists Indian installation artists 21st-century American women