November Noon’s design language is the sum of all lessons on hue. The richness of silk embedded in its centuries-old history; cuts that combine vibrant, botanical motifs and painterly prints that take you from zesty limoncello yellow to sun-soaked teal. Here, we are spotlighting three artists who capture our chromatic inspirations.
SAGARIKA SUNDARAM
HER WORK: Sagarika’s real strength lies in blending textiles with art. That skill emerges not where one might think, in clothing, but in sculptural forms. Her amorphous sculptures are dominated by hand-dyed wool she sources from communities in the Himalayas and Hudson Valley. The colours — always vibrant — are explosive in feeling, and each artwork represents movement and life. Saturated and organic, her creations explore the real potential of colour. In other words, her work aims to create a dialogue between philosophy, history, and literature through a modern, craft-based language.
WHO: Originally from Kolkata, Sagarika Sundaram is a New York-based artist recognized with several awards: The Hopper Prize, a Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship, Tishman Award for Excellence in Climate, Environmental Justice & Sustainability, and the Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design. Her work has been exhibited at institutions like Frieze New York (with Jhaveri Contemporary) and Nature Morte, New Delhi, and Frestonian Gallery in London. She is the Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt and also works as the deputy editor of Talking Textiles journal published annually by New York Textile Month. Sagarika is an alumna of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, MICA in Baltimore and Parsons, New York.
“Moon” by Sagarika Sundaram. The artist creates woven dhurries for a group exhibit at Nature Morte, Delhi in 2021. The dhurries explore nostalgia while relating the visuals with historical paintings and computer codes. Sundaram’s installations for “Parsons MFA Textiles: Hybrid” at Mana Contemporary. Materials like hand-felted wool dyed with indigo, madder root, and non-toxic acid dye combine to present the migrant’s experience with two divergent ideas: connection and disconnection.
AMRIT SINGH SANDHU
HER WORK: Amrit’s work explores themes like memory and identity. Her paintings are soaked in rich, warm colours that seem intimate and celebrate a multiplicity of skin tones. Her colorful creations use watercolours, oil paints, graphite, and colour pencils while displaying a combination of abstraction and portraiture. Her work ‘Portrait of a Lady’, for instance, was inspired by her family’s old black and white photos from the 20th century. Similarly, other subjects include admirable, strong women in her life.
WHO: A multi-hyphenate creative, Amrit is a painting graduate from Pratt Institute, New York. Originally from Chandigarh, she lives in Paris and works as an artist and a model. Her first curatorial project titled Paper Talks for studioELL in New York featured artists like Marlos E’van, Alfonso Fernandez, Kariann Fuqua, Jodi Hays, Kei Imai, John Ros, and Melissa Staiger. Her project Dauphinette x Amrit presented hand-painted cushions inspired by her abstract portraits.
A painting titled “Girl braiding hair” depicts Sandhu’s reflection on her culture. Her work is deeply personal, has the female gaze, and is an exercise in modern art.
A series of oil paintings on canvas from 2018 by Sandhu. Her family’s memorabilia inspire these artworks.
BHASHA CHAKRABARTI
HER WORK: In art, broken can also be beautiful. Bhasha’s work takes inspiration from this philosophy and explores mending as a metaphor, literally and figuratively. Her creations range from aluminum sculptures and Indigo-dyed portraits on wooden panels and linen to artworks inspired by Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf (The Quilt). Often grounded in local materials and symbols, Bhasha’s practise is at the centre of global conversations around race, gender, and power.
WHO: Bhasha is currently pursuing MFA at the Yale School of Art. Her work has been featured in galleries like Experimenter in Kolkata and M+B in Los Angeles, California, among others. Often, the US-based artist mends used clothing or articles of personal use — a form of repair largely delegated to women in a non-transactional manner. For Bhasha, this is a creative endeavour addressing fragility and impermanence.
“To Be So Black And Blue, Dominic As Neela Madhava” was a part of When I Get That Mood Indigo (2021) at the art gallery M+B, Los Angeles in California. The exhibit traced the transnational history and layered effect of Indigo.
An oil painting melded with found fabric on linen, “Maya and Neera on a Fake Gees Bend Quilt” was part of the series titled Lihaaf.
