Richa Arya

Richa Arya (b. 1997, Samalkha, Haryana, India) completed her BFA in Sculpture from Kurukshetra University in 2018 and her MFA in Sculpture from Delhi College of Art in 2020.

Richa has done a solo exhibition at Triveni Gallery (Supported by the Raza Foundation), New Delhi (2021). She has participated in several group exhibitions including Modern Art Gallery, Odisha (2017); 83rd All India exhibition, Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar (2017); 6th Woman Artscape, Chandigarh (2018); The State Gallery of Art, Hyderabad (2018); 7th Woman Artscape, Chandigarh (2019); Abir foundation, Ahmedabad (2019, 2021); Shrishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad (2021); Carpe Arte, Mumbai (2022); The Lexicon Art Gallery, New Delhi (2022).

Richa’s rich body of work embodies the feminist spirit of “personal is political”. Resolutely South Asian, and easily accessible; her visual language is a powerful articulation of countless, crisscrossing tropes of patriarchal oppression which otherwise remain unaccounted for. By juxtaposing starkly contrasting mediums against the delicate femininity of her sculptures’ subject matter, she can situate the viewer into similar spaces of gender ambivalence, and inequality as characteristic of women’s experiences across all age groups. Her idioms traverse in and out of several institutional economies of womanhood and retell narratives otherwise conveniently sidelined. At another level, the sheer process of her art-making in itself becomes a site of resistance against patriarchal policing; of channeling deep anguish, ultimately transforming her final art piece into a vital, compelling voice for women empowerment. She sculpts everyday objects using stereotypically ‘feminine’ skills like stitching to highlight the lives of common women- hinting at their hardships by using rusted metal sheets. Rooted in historical materialism, her practice is a painstakingly executed, evocative, and a dynamic critique of not just the patriarchal apparatus in general, but also linguistic, educational, and class barriers which are effectively deployed to maintain the hiatus, and thwart any attempts at upwards social mobility.

Richa currently lives and works in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.