Divya Mehra
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Divya Mehra | |
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Born | 1981 (age 42–43) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
Education | Columbia University, University of Manitoba |
Known for | Multimedia artist |
Website | divyamehra.com |
Divya Mehra (born 1981) is a Canadian artist from
Early life and education
Mehra was born Winnipeg, Canada, the second youngest of four children. She received her BFA (Honours) in
Work
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/04DMehra2017DangerousWomen%28BlazeofGlory%29.tif/lossy-page1-220px-04DMehra2017DangerousWomen%28BlazeofGlory%29.tif.jpg)
Mehra works in a multitude of forms, including sculpture, print, drawing, artist books, installation, advertising, performance, video and film.[6] She often uses humour as an entry to her work, explaining, "Humour everyone can understand ... creates space because it's really the most accessible thing and so that becomes the pathway into my work."[7] Mehra encourages viewers to consider their reactions to difficult questions about race(ism) and representation. She asks, "How can I have a conversation about something as complex as race and representation? If you...joke about it, I think it creates a space for a lot of people to enter and then think about what they're laughing at."[8] By pairing research and popular culture — including comics and social media — with her experience as an artist within the Indian diaspora, she creates works meant to be provocative yet humorous: They aim to disarm viewers while challenging stereotypes and contributing to conversations about the impacts of racism. Mehra's artistic output is a form of resistance — both to being consumed by and to satisfying the audience's needs and desires.[9][10]
Mehra is known in part for her text-based works. One of her first of such works, Currently Fashionable, was created in 2009 and shown as a part of her exhibition, You have to tell them, I'm not a Racist first presented in 2012 at La Maison des artistes visuels francophones, in
Selected projects
In 2012 Mehra was one of ten artists commissioned by
Mehra was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2017. Mehra created new work for both the exhibition and her Sobey Art Award profile video, which functioned as a visual montage of her phone's personal archive.[15] In her collection of five works for the exhibition, Mehra explores racism, loss and identity. The National Gallery of Canada writes: "Symbolizing the failure of the American dream, a crushed gold vintage Jaguar dominates her section of the exhibition. The car is joined by personal objects like the brass base of a statue of the deity Ganesh. The rest of the statue was sawed from the base and stolen from her family's restaurant."[16]
In 2018, Mehra was commissioned to create the Spring 2018 Canadian Art Magazine cover for the "Dirty Words" issue. For the cover image she recreated the set of the popular Canadian sketch comedy show,
Mehra was the subject of a 2018 episode of the
Mehra was awarded the 2019 Wanda Koop Research Fund. Created by Canadian Art, the $15,000 award recognizes a mid-career visual artist and is intended to fund research activities related to their artistic practice. The fund is named in honor of Governor General’s Award recipient Wanda Koop, who was the first artist to appear on the cover of Canadian Art when it began publishing in the fall of 1984.[21]
Mehra won the Sobey Art Award, awarded annually by the National Gallery of Canada, in 2022.[22]
Selected exhibitions
- Banff Centre[23]
- Art Gallery of Ontario[24]
- Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia[25]
- Artspeak[26]
Selected awards
- Manitoba Arts Council, Major Arts Grant, 2014
- Glenfiddich Art Award, shortlist, 2015
- Sobey Art Award, shortlist, Prairies and the North region, 2017[27][28]
- Wanda Koop Research Fund, 2020[29]
- Sobey Art Award, winner, 2022.[30]
Publications
- Mehra. '"Tone". Canadian Art Magazine, 2018.[31]
- Mehra. Pouring Water on a Drowning Man. Winnipeg: As We Try and Sleep Press, 2014.[32][33]
- Mehra. Quit, India. Vancouver: Artspeak & Winnipeg: Platform Gallery, 2013.[34][35]
Selected Reviews & Interviews
- Jen Zoratti. “Artist tackles colonialism with wit, Inflatable installation acquired by National Gallery of Canada,” Winnipeg Free Press, August 31, 2019.[36]
- Yaniya Lee. "Tactics and Strategies of Racialized Artists: Some Notes on How to Circumvent the Art World’s Terms of Inclusion," ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, November 29, 2018.[37]
- Marissa Largo. “Jamelie Hassan and Divya Mehra: Cultural Currency and Canada 150,” Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas, Issue 4, March 4, 2018.[38]
- Mark Mann. “White Like Me: Encountering Divya Mehra’s You have to tell Them, i’m not a Racist.,” Momus, October 21, 2017.[39]
- Amy Fung. “Dearest Divya,” in conjunction with the exhibition You have to tell Them, i’m not a Racist., Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto, 2017.
- Kendra Place. “Abolish, She Said,” in conjunction with the exhibition You have to tell Them, i’m not a Racist., Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto, 2017.
- Angela Henderson & Solomon Nagler. “Review: It’s Gonna Rain,” Border Crossings Magazine, Issue 141, March 2017.[40]
- Denise Markonish. “Oh, Canada: Contemporary Art from North North America,” in conjunction with the exhibition, Oh, Canada, at MASS MoCA, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
References
- ^ Mackenzie, Lindsay. ""Oh My Gosh! That Would Be Bananas; - 5 Questions for Winnipeg Artist Divya Mehra"".
- ^ "DIVYA MEHRA". www.divyamehra.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "Divya Mehra Wins Canada's Sobey Art Award". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
- ^ Mayes, Alison (31 March 2012). "Artist Divya Mehra uses humour 'to cut a tense situation'". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ "Divya Mehra on "Quit, India" and Her Dark Comedy | Artinfo". Artinfo. Archived from the original on 2017-01-16. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ "DIVYA MEHRA". www.divyamehra.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "'Oh my gosh! That would be bananas' — 5 questions for Winnipeg artist Divya Mehra | CBC News".
- ^ "Why Divya Mehra didn't want In the Making to shoot footage of the Taj Mahal | CBC Arts". CBC. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
- ^ "Divya Mehra Awarded the 2019 Wanda Koop Research Fund". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "Together, For Better or Worse: Five Takes on Community from the Finalists in the 2017 Sobey Art Award". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "DIVYA MEHRA - The funny things You do - Viewing Room - Night Gallery". www.nightgallery.ca. 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
- ^ "Art Breaks". Creative Time. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ Boucher, Brian (2012-11-15). "MTV Unveils New Art Breaks Videos". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "The Success of Failure: Divya Mehra". bordercrossingsmag.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "The 2017 Sobey Art Award - Divya Mehra - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "Together, For Better or Worse: Five Takes on Community from the Finalists in the 2017 Sobey Art Award". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ Balzer, David. "Dirty Words: An Introduction". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ CBC Arts (November 8, 2018). "Why Divya Mehra didn't want In the Making to shoot footage of the Taj Mahal". CBC Arts.
- ^ "CBC Gem". gem.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "Divya Mehra: Vision Exchange". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "Divya Mehra Awarded the 2019 Wanda Koop Research Fund".
- ^ "Divya Mehra Wins Canada's Sobey Art Award".
- ^ Cottingham, Steven (April 29, 2015). "Divya Mehra and Talk Is Cheap: Our Broken Tongues". Canadian Art.
- ^ "Win Last, Don't Care". Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
- ^ "Beginning with the Seventies: GLUT". Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Retrieved 2019-02-28.
- ^ "Divya Mehra | Artspeak". Retrieved 2019-02-28.
- ^ "Women Dominate Sobey Art Award Shortlist for First Time Ever". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
- ^ "The Prairies & North - Divya Mehra". Cbc.ca. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
- ^ "Divya Mehra Awarded the 2019 Wanda Koop Research Fund". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
- ^ "Article: 2022 Sobey Art Award Exhibition". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada magazine. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
- ^ "Spring 2018: Dirty Words".
- ISBN 9780978394684.
- )
- ^ "QUIT, INDIA. | Platform Centre". platformgallery.org. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ISBN 978-0-9697675-8-9.
- ^ Zoratti, Jen (2019-08-31). "Artist tackles colonialism with wit". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ says, Carla (2018-11-29). "Tactics and strategies of racialized artists: some notes on how to circumvent the art world's terms of inclusion · ArtsEverywhere". ArtsEverywhere. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- .
- ^ "White Like Me: Encountering Divya Mehra's "You have to tell Them, i'm not a Racist"". Momus. 2017-10-12. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ "Issue 141 – March 2017". bordercrossingsmag.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.