Priya Kambli

Colors Fall Down

January 7 - March 3, 2011

My photographs visually express the notion of transience and split cultural identity caused by the act of migration. I have been viewing this issue through the lens of my own personal history and cultural journey from India to the United States. This journey left me feeling disconnected- unable to anchor myself in any particular cultural framework. I have therefore formed a hybrid identity, a patching together of two cultures within one person. In my work I explore absence, loss and genealogy through the use of my own family snapshots. These personal artifacts are re-contextualized alongside fragmented images and staged imagery to reveal the correlations between generations, cultures and memory.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Priya Kambli was born and raised in India and moved to the United States at the age of 18 carrying her entire life in one suitcase weighing about 20 lbs. She began her artistic career in the States and her work has always been informed by her experience as a migrant. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette and continued on to receive a Masters degree in Photography from the University of Houston. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri - a community where she has lived longer than anywhere else. Priya's work has been included in exhibitions at Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh; Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York; Houston Center for Photography; Photography Resource Center at Boston University; SF Camerawork, San Francisco, and others. Priya's recent awards include the 2008 Photolucida Critical Mass Book Award, the 2009 LensCulture International Exposure Award Honorable Mention and the 2010 Juror’s Pick for the Project Prize awarded by Daylight Magazine and Duke University Center for Documentary Studies. https://www.priyakambli.com/