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Meera Sethi

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Meera Sethi (born 1975) is a Toronto-based visual artist. Sethi was born in Delhi, India and immigrated to Toronto early in her life, her art sits between the space of diaspora and homeland.[1]

Education

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She received a BA in Fine Arts in 1998 and then gained an MA in Arts in 2001, both from York University.[2]

Art practice

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Sethi is a multidisciplinary artist whose research based includes painting, drawing, soft sculpture, illustration, social practice and performance. Throughout her oeuvre, Sethi looks at the meaning that people inscribe onto their clothing. Her research-based practice, delves into the intricacies of the history of cotton, the contemporary life cycle of clothing production from the growing cotton to the weaving of fabric to the labour conditions of construction of articles to the disposal of the clothing.[3]

Sethi's early projects Firangi Rang Birangi and Begum evolved as meditations on the fashion of queer diasporic people, paying special attention to the patterns, silhouettes and colours. These investigations are broadened to include figures, both imagined and based on real people in subsequent works.[4]

Upping the Aunty

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Sethi's Upping the Aunty was a[5][6][7][8][9] three-part project consisting of paintings,[10] street photography,[11] and an adult colouring book to celebrate the sartorial culture of the South Asian aunty. This project has been the subject of numerous academic studies.[12][13]

Recent work

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Sethi's recent work has two separate but related strains. One strain focuses on the historical and contemporary conditions of cloth manufacturing while the other expands her figurative painting practice beyond the focusing on clothing and brings in her existing interest in domestic interiors.[14] In the Who's your Dadi? series,[15] Sethi picks off on her Upping the Aunty series looking at the space that paternal grandmother's hold.

In 2023, she had a two simultaneous solo exhibitions with two new bodies of work. Outerwhere series are twelve winter coats which have been made into soft sculpture of collaged textiles and found objects. Each of these coats tell a political and personal story woven together.[16] Cotton Exchange is a series seven paintings that reproduced a bas sculpture relief on the Cotton Exchange building in Mumbai, India. The original sculpture depicts the entire journey of cotton textile production in the early 20th century. Included in this exhibition was Articles of Clothing in which Sethi magnified images of protesting textile workers after the collapse of Rana Plaza. Through drawing, she reproduced the workers' textiles.[17]

Her artwork has appeared on the CBC television shows Sort Of and Kim's Convenience.[citation needed]

Exhibitions

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Solo exhibitions

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  • 2013 Foreign Returned, Sofitel on Collins / Melbourne, Australia[18]
  • 2016 Upping The Aunty / Daniels Spectrum, Toronto, ON, Canada[19]
  • 2017 Begum, The Freedom Factory, Toronto, ON, Canada[20]
  • 2022 Who’s Your Dadi?, exhibition text Laila Malik,[21] Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, ON, Canada[22]
  • 2023 ritual intimacies, curator Noor Bhangu, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina, Canada[23]
  • 2023 Cotton Exchange, exhibition text by Natasha Bissonauth, Cambridge Art Galleries Preston, Cambridge, ON, Canada[24]
  • 2023 Outerwhere, exhibition text by Natasha Bissonauth, Cambridge Art Galleries Queen’s Square, Cambridge, ON, Canada[24]

Group exhibitions

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  • 1998 Dirty Laundry and Parting Thoughts, curated Pamila Mathuru Propeller Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada[25]
  • 1999 (w)hole, Emittance, Gallery 76, Toronto, Canada, brochure[26]
  • 2000 Private Thoughts/Public Moments, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada[27]
  • 2009 Transpulsations: New Asian Canadian Imaginings, curated Doris Sung and Jooyeon Rhee, Gales Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • 2010 Environmental Warnings, A Space (vitrines), 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON, Canada[28]
  • 2010 Life of a Vagabond: Contemporary Art from Canada / curator Ali Adil Khan, Tivoli Art Gallery, Dhaka, Bangladesh[citation needed]
  • 2013 011+91 | 011+92 / Art Gallery of Mississauga / Mississauga, ON, Canada[29]
  • 2017 On the Margins of the Divine, Trinity Square Video (vitrines) / Toronto, ON, Canada[30]
  • 2018 Convenience, curator Belinda Kwam & Tak Pham, 187 Augusta Gallery / Toronto, ON, Canada[31]
  • 2021 Upping The Aunty and Begum, In Visible / curator Hitoko Okada, Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, ON, Canada[32]
  • 2021 Articles of Clothing, Fashion Forward & Adelante Siempre, curator Hitoko Okada, WAHC, Hamilton, ON, Canada[33]

Public art

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  • 2013 Church Street Mural Project / Toronto, Canada[34]
  • 2017 Friends of the Pan Am Path Mural / Toronto, Canada[35]
  • 2022 Colour of the Year, curated Julie Nagam Nuit Blanche Toronto / Commissioned Artist[36]

Residencies

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Collections

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Sethi's work is held in the following permanent collections:

References

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  1. ^ "Connecting the Continents: Meera Sethi Uses Art To Integrate Identities | Verve Magazine". www.vervemagazine.in. 2018-04-27. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  2. ^ "Profiles on Practice: Meera Sethi". Femme Art Review. 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  3. ^ "Finding ourselves in our clothes". Retrieved Jan 22, 2024.
  4. ^ "Connecting the Continents: Meera Sethi Uses Art To Integrate Identities | Verve Magazine". www.vervemagazine.in. 2018-04-27. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  5. ^ Misra, Tanvi. "A Photographer Captures the Often Overlooked Aunty Couture". NPR.
  6. ^ "South Asian Street Style: Artist Photographs Fashionable Aunties". NBC News. 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  7. ^ Reporter, Holly Honderich Staff (2016-07-10). "Artist explores fashion and identity politics in 'Upping the Aunty'". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  8. ^ Modi, Shetu (2016-06-17). "Jun 2016: Art shines light on South Asian aunty style". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  9. ^ Parris, Amanda. "Meera Sethi celebrates the wisdom and style of south asian women". cbc.ca.
  10. ^ "Visual Artist Meera Sethi Celebrates the South Asian Auntie in "Upping The Aunty" Project". reformthefunk.com. 2018-03-31. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  11. ^ "Upping the Aunty". Upping the Aunty is a mixed media portrait project by artist Meera Sethi that celebrates the South Asian "aunty". Meera flips the script on street style, by focusing her lens on aunties with swag.... Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  12. ^ "Kareem Khubchandani | Auntologies: Queer Aesthetics and South Asian Aunties | Stanford Humanities Center". shc.stanford.edu. 2023-05-11. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  13. ^ Khubchandani, Kareem (2022-07-03). "Critical aunty studies: an auntroduction". Text and Performance Quarterly. 42 (3): 221–245. doi:10.1080/10462937.2022.2081912. ISSN 1046-2937.
  14. ^ Sharon (2010-03-27). "Globetrotting with The Keybunch: Meera Sethi's Toronto home cum studio loft space". The Keybunch Decor Blog. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  15. ^ "Who's your Dadi?".
  16. ^ Bhandari, Aparita (Nov 3, 2023). "Look inside these winter coats to find a South Asian immigrant story". Retrieved Jan 22, 2023.
  17. ^ Bhandari, Aparita (Nov 3, 2023). "Look inside these winter coats to find a South Asian immigrant story". Retrieved Jan 22, 2024.
  18. ^ "Meera Sethi, 2013". globalartprojects. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  19. ^ "Upping The Aunty - Opening Reception". Daniels Spectrum. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  20. ^ "Upping The Aunty - Opening Reception". Daniels Spectrum. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  21. ^ "The Dadi Principle by Laila Malik". Meera Sethi. 2023-07-04. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  22. ^ "Who's Your Dadi? | Hamilton Artists Inc". www.theinc.ca. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  23. ^ "Meera Sethi: ritual intimacies". Dunlop Learning. 2023-02-18. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  24. ^ a b "Meera Sethi: Outerwhere | Idea Exchange". ideaexchange.org. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  25. ^ "Dirty Laundry & Parting Thoughts | South Asian Visual Arts Collective". Propeller Art Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  26. ^ lee@glkinc.com (1999-03-16). "Emmitance". SAVAC. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  27. ^ "Private Thoughts/Public Moments". Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  28. ^ "Environmental Warnings – A Space Gallery". aspacegallery.org. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  29. ^ "Art Metropole / 011+91 | 011+92 - On Locational Identity". Art Metropole. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  30. ^ "VITRINE: On the Margins of the Divine | Trinity Square Video". www.trinitysquarevideo.com. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  31. ^ "CONVENIENCE". CONVENIENCE. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  32. ^ "Marina Dempster & Meera Sethi: In Visible". Art Gallery Burlington. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  33. ^ "Fashion Forward". Workers Arts and Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  34. ^ "Meera Sethi". churchstreetmurals. 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  35. ^ "Art Photos". Pan Am Path Archive. 2019-11-16. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  36. ^ "Nuit Blanche".
  37. ^ "2021 MAG Exchange Program". Mitchell Art Gallery. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  38. ^ "Meera Sethi". The Wedge Collection. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
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