Grace Aneiza Ali publishes essay for exhibition organized by Hollis Taggart, New York
FSU Professor Grace Aneiza Ali authored the featured essay for the exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of the solo exhibition Suchitra Mattai: Herself as Another organized by Hollis Taggart, New York, and presented from February 10–March 12, 2022.
In the essay titled “Suchitra Mattai’s Unravelings,” Professor Ali wrote:
“Mattai follows through with a commitment to use her work as a narrative device to draw attention to histories that are either under told, mistold, or misrepresented. These form a prolific body of work that significantly underscores the artist’s concern for the movements of peoples, the potential of art to speak to who and what gets left behind, and what survives and what is mourned. In doing so, she is in a constant and important conversation, in both subtle and overt ways, about how we navigate through and out of migration, displacement, and borders.”
FSU Department of Art recently presented Suchitra Mattai as a Spring 2022 Visiting Artist on March 10, 2022, a conversation that was hosted by Professor Ali.
Suchitra Mattai is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Suchitra was born in Guyana, South America, but has also lived in Halifax and Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Philadelphia, New York City, Minneapolis, and Udaipur, India. These diverse natural and cultural environments have greatly influenced her work and research. While her practice includes a wide range of materials and ideas, her primary interests include 1) the complex relationship between the natural and artificial worlds and 2) the questioning of historical and authoritative narratives, especially those surrounding colonialism. Through painting, fiber, drawing, collage, installation, video, and sculpture, she weaves narratives of “the other,” invoking fractured landscapes and reclaiming cultural artifacts (often colonial and domestic in nature).
Hollis Taggart was founded in 1979, with a mission to present museum-quality works of art, maintain a program motivated by scholarship, and offer personalized support in all aspects of art collecting.
Grace Aneiza Ali is a Curator and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and affiliated faculty in the Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies Program, Department of Art History at Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee, Florida. Prior to joining FSU, she was a Provost Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (NYU), and affiliated faculty with the Asian/Pacific/American Institute.