People

Sharmistha Ray’s art practice delves into the complex inheritance of multiple cultures through the lens of their queer identity, immigration, and modes of abstraction, both Western and non-Western. Working primarily in painting and drawing, they also engage in sculpture, installation, curation, criticism, and pedagogy. In addition to their solo work, they co-founded, with artist Dannielle Tegeder, the feminist art collective Hilma’s Ghost, a collaborative model for research, artistic production, pedagogy, and community.

Ray’s work has been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally in the United States, India, and Singapore, including at Gallery RGR, Mexico City, Mexico; Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY; Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL; Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT; The Armory Show, New York, NY; Parallax Art Center, Portland, OR; India Art Fair, New Delhi, India; Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, India; and Mill Hall, Kochi, India, among others. Reviews of their work have appeared in The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Artnet, Hyperallergic, Art India, and TimeOut Mumbai.

Ray is a recipient of the Montblanc Young Artist Worldwide Patronage Award, a TED Fellowship, and a Joan Mitchell MFA Grant. They received a BA from Williams College and a dual MFA in Painting and MS in Theory, Criticism, and History of Art, Design and Architecture from Pratt Institute. They have previously taught at Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and in the MFA program at the CMU School of Art.