My work examines the general themes of identity and globalization through the trope of landscape. I often appropriate found objects to create mixed-media “drawings” and installations that evoke mystery within the familiar. My disconnected “landscapes” are created from history, memory, travel and pop-culture. Many of the objects I use in my practice are hand-made, craft-based or domestic in nature. I seek to invert the familiar in order to complicate assumptions about race and gender.

I am interested in “collage” and hand-made craft-based processes. My mixed-media landscapes weave diverse mediums, textures, and objects together alluding to the disorienting feeling experienced by those who exist in and travel between multiple cultural spheres. My practice combines painting and drawing with embroidery, vintage needle-points, macramé works, jewelry boxes, teacups, works on paper, etc.

Bio

Suchitra Mattai lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Suchitra grew up along the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean (from Guyana, South America to Nova Scotia, Canada), which she considers home. 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 her work in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Denver, Austin, Berlin, Germany, and Wales. Her paintings have appeared in the publication New America Paintings and she just completed a residency at RedLine Contemporary Art Center.