Priya Kambli
Sona and Me (Premier Pandmini), 2017
8½ x 11" Archival pigment print
6½ x 9" Image sizeEdition of 22
Each print includes a certificate of authenticity, numbered and hand-signed by the artist.
About the Image
My approach to imaginatively exploring content is to combine labor intensive practice with playful experimentation. I obsessively embellish archival photographs with a variety of materials, gravitating towards items that are humble and grounded in everyday use. I re-contextualize these familial associations for my own artistic and creative purposes, but also as a way of embellishing my past and connecting it to the present. These alterations - the use of pattern in and on top of the object - have been described as a form of fenestration. Though they obscure the image, they create windows through which underlying structures are revealed.
Artist Bio
Priya Kambli received her BFA at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette and an MFA from the University of Houston. She is currently Professor of Art at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.
Kambli’s work inadvertently examines the question asked by her son Kavi at age three; did she belong to two different worlds, since she spoke two different languages? The essence of his question continues to be a driving force in her art making. In her work, Kambli has always strived to understand the formation and erasure of identity that is an inevitable part of the migrant experience, exploring the resulting fragmentation of family, identity, and culture.
Kambli’s artwork has been well received, having been exhibited, published, collected and reviewed in the national and international photographic community. She was the winner of the inaugural Female in Focus, 2019 award - aimed at addressing the gender imbalance in the industry by highlighting the exceptional quality of work by female photographers around the world. She is also the winner of the 2021 Individual Artist Outstanding Artist by the Missouri Arts Council. The success of Kambli’s work underlines the fact that she is engaged in an important dialogue, and reinforces her intent to make work driven by a growing awareness of the importance of many voices from diverse perspectives and the political relevance of our private struggles.