Saumitra chandratreya

Bio

Born 1990 in Mumbai India, Saumitra Chandratreya is a Fiber-Installation artist who lives in St. Petersburg, FL and Chicago, IL. Bengaluru, India is his other home. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017 with a Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment. He has a BFA in Textile Design from the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru, India.

Chandratreya was awarded one of the Individual Artist Grants from St. Petersburg Arts Alliance in 2020, Emerging Artist Grants from Creative Pinellas in 2018 and he was one of the emerging artists at the 2019 Gasparilla Festival of Arts in Tampa, FL. Chandratreya was one of the selected artists for Inaugural Qinfolk Festival in Ithaca, NY in 2019. He was one of the Finalists who exhibited at the Union League Club of Chicago for Luminarts Cultural Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship Show. Chandratreya was awarded the Shapiro Graduate research fellowship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was nominated by his department for the James Nelson Raymond Fellowship while studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His works have been collected nationally and internationally and his art has been written about extensively in the local media. Chandratreya has shown in group and solo shows in Canada, Germany, India, Japan and United states

Artist Statement

I explore my identity as a queer, non-binary, immigrant person in the United States through my work. I extrapolate images from my neighborhood and South Asian art, architecture and craft. Natural/botanical forms attract me. I am interested in exploring the signs of human life invading nature. I am working through a series of work that investigates my gaze about my own body. It is a celebration of my body. Body dysmorphia and low self esteem have caused a lot of harm to my mental wellness. I have found a way to find bliss through my work and therapy. I use Silk Screening, Weaving, Hand Drawing, Hand Embroidery and Cyanotype to create my work. I use everyday objects and substrates like textiles and archival paper to make abstract, suggestive and ornamental work that has layered meaning. I make pieces that use beauty as a device to frame subversive thoughts and everyday banal experiences. I am a person of routines, I enjoy tracking my routines visually. I use imagery derived from these routines in my work.

The process of making is organic for me and it linear or non linear. Since I was a child I remember making and the pleasure I derive from it. Art is my way of making sense of the world and translating it . Sometimes I use design strategies to plan my pieces and sometimes I think through making. My studio is a sacred space and I feel most connected to my spiritual self when I am making.

The objective of my art is to inform and to have a discussion by making apparent what isn’t. Contemporary art enables me to weave in various mediums to achieve a goal or to embark on an exploratory journey. I believe in the power of art and it’s ability to impact popular opinion and bring about social change. I think about contemporary art in the context of everyday and I want my art to reach across barriers, tactile and covert.