Reevah Agarwaal – SAIC Graduate Exhibition 2024

SAIC SHOWS 2024 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Graduates

SAIC SHOWS 2024 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Reevah Agarwaal

Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Printmedia

Graduate Exhibition Two

reevah99@gmail.com

reevah.weebly.com

Reevah Agarwaal is a multi-disciplinary artist from New Delhi, India, currently based in Chicago, IL. Her work explores girlhood, memory, and the complex dualities that exist in domestic relationships. Using repurposed found textiles that have a personal history, she creates quilts and collages that reference her childhood, relationships, and the domestic spaces she has lived in. By employing the aesthetic of femininity, she aims to reconstruct and reclaim narratives of women and girls.

Her work has appeared in various shows including Stainless Gallery in New Delhi, and at Zhou B Art Center, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Purple Window Gallery, Color Club, South Asia Institute, FLXST Contemporary, Free Range, and The Martin in Chicago. She also has permanent public artwork on view in South Chicago which was funded by Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) and South Chicago Parents and Friends. Recently she received the New Futures Award from The Other Art Fair.

Reevah Agarwaal - I Wish

I Wish, 2024, Sari fabric, fabric from other miscellaneous clothing, wire, thread, pompoms, sequins, and yarn, 35.75 x 15.5 in.

Reevah Agarwaal - Dear Diary

Dear Diary, 2024, Collage with sari fabric, nightie fabric, paper, glitter, linocut, screenprint, monotype, acrylic, colored pencil, and thread, 14.25 x 11.5 in.

Reevah Agarwaal - Confession at Dad's Desk

Confession at Dad's Desk, 2023, Watercolor, monotype, linocut collage on paper with glitter, gouache, and colored pencil, 11.5 x 18.5 in.

Reevah Agarwaal - Homecoming

Homecoming, 2023, Monotype, linocut, watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, reflective vinyl, and paper collage with glitter, 14 x 24 in.

Reevah Agarwaal - Embrace

Embrace, 2023, Nani’s sari, artist’s sari, thread, wire, snap button, 17 x 26 in.

My art engages with the dualities inherent in domestic contexts, exploring the coexistence of love and violence, power and shame, and isolation and centrality. These dualities, often mistaken for one another, contribute to the nuanced narratives within my work. Visually, my art is firmly rooted in the aesthetics of girlhood. I make quilts and collages, that employ traditionally feminine palettes such as pink tones, glitter, satin, and decorative elements. These visual choices serve as a language to depict stories of reckoning and coming of age. The overall aesthetic of my work draws inspiration from storybooks, scrapbooks, and young girls’ diaries—spaces historically reserved for truth telling, confessions, and secret angst—becoming forces of feminist consciousness.
Growing up in a patriarchal domestic structure in India has profoundly influenced my exploration of intergenerational experiences of girlhood within the Indian family ecosystem. My work delves into the tapestry of emotions woven within patriarchal family dynamics and intimate relationships, using inherited and found textiles, family photographs, domestic environments, keepsakes, and conversations as vessels for memories.
The tactile acts of hand stitching and embroidery, initially imparted by my grandmother, serve as symbolic acts of love and a connection to my lineage. These needlework practices were the means through which the women in my family marked their territory within the confines of the domestic domain. I aim to elevate the narratives of women and girlhood, shedding light on stories often overlooked in a patriarchal art world. The transformation and activation of personal archives in my work symbolize a reclamation of feminist history from a history of exclusion, intergenerational trauma, gender politics at home, and internalized misogyny—an experience not unique to me but reflective of the broader framework of the urban Indian family.