Opening Reception: Friday, April 14, 2023, 6-8PM
(Beverly Hills, CA – April 4, 2023) UTA Artist Space presents I Resemble Everyone But Myself, the first solo presentation in Los Angeles by the India-born, San Francisco-based artist Anoushka Mirchandani. The exhibition showcases twelve new figurative and abstract paintings by Mirchandani, examining her experience as an Indian, Immigrant, Other, Woman. The title of the exhibition, an excerpt from late Indian poet AK Ramanujan, deeply resonates with Mirchandani’s work that probes ancestry, personal history, cultural and sociopolitical environments through a diasporic lens, exploring the micro-tensions and identity transformations that are part and parcel of code-switching and assimilation in a foreign land.
For Mirchandani, there is a certain violence in the unwavering celebration of immigrant assimilation that often undermines one’s identity, and comes at intimate personal and cultural costs. Simultaneously, there is self-learning, growth and discovery of agency deeply intertwined with the effort of integration into a new environment. In this body of work, Mirchandani examines the nuances of cultural assimilation; the incessant concealing and revealing of cultural markers and re-building of home through the lens of her own immigrant journey, while also reaching back to the women of her ancestry.
I Resemble Everyone But Myself specifically highlights Mirchandani’s grandmothers, both of whom fled what became Pakistan during the 1947 Partition of India under British rule. There is a recurring theme of generational displacement in Mirchandani’s matrilineage, either by force or choice, whereby identity and sense of place is reconfigured and born anew. Identity and home thus reveal themselves as fluid sites of memory, a gathering of sensations, stories, objects, people as opposed to a fixed destination.
Mirchandani’s Nani (maternal grandmother) and Dadi (paternal grandmother) served as inspiration for the exhibition. Through archival photographs, in-depth interviews, and places of familial and emotional significance, Mirchandani unravels–and reassembles–her grandmothers’ attempts to navigate life as refugees in a new country. Muted palettes of earthy reds, indigo blues and mango yellows across figurative and abstract works come through in opaque shapes and soft layered washes that allude to the inherent contradictory nature of being an immigrant; simultaneously visible and invisible. Much of the exhibition’s narrative resonates with Mirchandani’s own immigration journey. When visiting India, Mirchandani often finds solace in her family’s anecdotes, exploring locations and investigating objects and stories that are imbued with nostalgia and personal history. Through the themes of warmth, resilience and memory, Mirchandani connects stories that are hers and theirs to the greater canon of human experience.
UTA Artist Space Director Zuzanna Ciolek states, “We’re thrilled to open Anoushka’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles and introduce audiences to her work, which bridges family, connection, and generational storytelling in a beautiful and compelling format. The exceptional paintings draw you in to Anoushka’s world, and make you want to learn more.”
Additionally on view at UTA Artist Space, Beverly Hills, is an exhibition of paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Melody Tuttle that similarly interrogates the female form. Tuttle depicts women isolated in routine and mundane scenes of everyday life, from lying in bed to getting dressed. While the scenes in which they occupy are tranquil and pensive, the colors vivid and visceral, as if to exist within their own world. Their identities concealed by positioning and swaths of hair, these figures serve as expressive symbols rather than depictions of actual women; a female archetype in lieu of a portrait. Through these paintings, the artist contemplates autonomy, self-reliance, and the female sense of self as it exists in the day-to-day.
ABOUT ANOUSHKA MIRCHANDANI
Born in Pune, India, Anoushka Mirchandani (b. 1988) is a female artist living and working in San Francisco. Her works are informed by her cultural upbringing in India and her personal discoveries and growth in the United States. Working across multiple media, Anoushka creates figurative and abstract artworks that embody the emotions of what it feels like to be a woman in society today. Following acclaimed presentations at Marianne Boesky Gallery and The Armory Show, her debut exhibition with UTA Artist Space presents a new body of work that examines cultural assimilation through the perspective of her own immigrant journey.
anoushkamirchandani.com
@anoushka
ABOUT MELODY TUTTLE
Melody Tuttle (b. 1985 Des Moines, Iowa) is a Brooklyn-based figurative painter who works primarily with oils on canvas. She graduated with a BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. After graduation, she spent several years in Providence and Chicago before eventually settling in New York to pursue painting full time. Tuttle has shown her paintings with Hashimoto Contemporary and Thierry Goldberg and has a forthcoming solo show in New York with Hyacinth Gallery.
melodytuttle.com
@melodytuttle
ABOUT UTA ARTIST SPACE
Since the establishment of its flagship Beverly Hills location in 2018, UTA Artist Space has been committed to showcasing art by globally recognized talent. With the announcement of a second Atlanta location, to open in 2023, UTA Artist Space will bring its impressive vision and reach across the United States. The original location has presented notable exhibitions with interdisciplinary artists and creatives, including Enrique Martinez Celaya, Mandy El-Sayegh, Conrad Egyir, The Estate of Ernie Barnes, Essence Harden, Ferrari Sheppard, and Ai Weiwei, among others.
UTAArtistSpace.com
@utaartistspace
ABOUT UTA
UTA (United Talent Agency) unites ideas, opportunities and talent. The company represents some of the world’s most iconic, barrier-breaking artists, creators and changemakers—from actors, athletes and musicians to writers, gamers and digital influencers. One of the most influential companies in global entertainment, UTA’s business spans talent representation, content production, as well as strategic advisory and marketing work with some of the world’s biggest brands. UTA is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, New York and London. More information can be found at unitedtalent.com
@unitedtalent
PRESS CONTACT
Mackenzie Berk
Sutton Communications
mackenzie@suttoncomms.com
216-577-4194