I am an intuitive artist creating narrative art. As a storyteller, I want to bring a new perspective into the readings of existing narratives: a new point of view or a subtle subtext which didn’t exist, making the story richer and multilayered.
I had been creating abstract art forms since my early teens. It was only in my 30s that I gravitated towards figurative art. I create stylistic portraitures with strong narrative elements that reflect the subjects' inner lives.
My own politics as a feminist and a postcolonial critic informs my artworks. Space, history, bodies, and the lived realities of women are some of the themes of my artworks as of my writings. I also celebrate every day and the momentary through my work.
I intend my artwork to be replete with jouissance and irony through popular culture and art images.
About the Artist
Shweta Rao Garg is a visual artist, poet and academic. Her poetry has been published widely. She has recently moved to Baltimore, Maryland, from India, in 2022. Her artwork can be seen at https://shwetaraogarg.comArtist's Statement
Shweta Rao Garg's paintings are narrative in nature and reimagine well-known stories on her colourful canvases. Her first solo exhibition of paintings, “The Bard in Acrylic”, was inspired by the works of William Shakespeare and was held in December 2018 in Ahmedabad, India. Her second solo exhibition of paintings, “Of Goddesses and Women”, was about the everyday lives of urban Indian women and goddesses held in December 2019. In March 2022, she organized “SWAAS: An Art Intervention on Loss, Hope and Gratitude” in Ahmedabad, India. This public art intervention enabled the community to share their experiences during the pandemic through collaborative art. Her poetry collection, Of Goddesses and Women, was published by Sahitya Akademi, the Indian national academy of letters, in 2021. She is one of the co-editors of Quicksand Borders: South Asia in Verse (forthcoming Macmillan, New Delhi) and one of the four contributors in Shakespearewalis: Verses on the Bard (forthcoming Flowersong Press, McAllen, Texas). Her poems have been published in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Indian Literature, Coldnoon, Everyday Poems, Postcolonial Text, Transnational Literature, Muse India, Visual Verse, Yugen Quest Review, etc. Like her art, her writings are about her lived experiences as a woman; mythology, popular culture, love, and motherhood are recurring themes. She seeks to create a conversation between her visual art and writing through visual poetry. Rao Garg holds a PhD in English literature. She was a Fulbright Doctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010. Shweta perceives her art as a culmination of her creative and critical faculties. She continues to create art that draws from popular visual culture, Indian mythology and brown women’s lived experiences. Her art can be viewed at https://shwetaraogarg.comFeatured Work
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