Anoushka Mirchandani: Between Worlds, Beneath Skin
Installation view of Anoushka Mirchandani: A House Called Tomorrow. Courtesy of the artist and Yossi Milo Gallery.
Artist Anoushka Mirchandani arrived in the art world with a force, turning personal displacement into a visual language. Her oil pastels carve through the body—marking certain parts, leaving others bare—offering a quiet yet sharp commentary on the nuances of assimilation and identity as a South Asian woman. From Pune to San Francisco, New York, and Paros, her work is shaped by the disparate landscapes she’s inhabited. After her debut solo in New York with Yossi Milo Gallery, which concluded in early January, she is back in San Francisco, poised to present new work with Jonathan Carver Moore at FOG Design+Art 2025, where the next phase of her journey is quietly coming into focus.
Shreya Ajmani: What themes have you found yourself exploring more deeply in your recent work?
Anoushka Mirchandani: I have been exploring themes of intimacy, cultural notions of privacy and community, attachment to space, and liberation from space, giving visual form to what it looks like to be part of a diaspora. My recent work investigates our connection to and relationship with our surroundings, man-made and natural.
Anoushka Mirchandani, Field of Secrets, 2023. Oil, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas. 96 × 90 in. Courtesy of the artist.
SA: Which city would you say has had the biggest impact on you?
AM: Different cities hold me in different ways, and the amount of time spent in a city does not necessarily dictate the impact it has on me or on my practice. I spent some time last year in New York City, with all its vertical lines. I was able to experience its changing seasons as well as the life cycles of various flower and plant species. Seeing what’s blooming in flower beds and urban gardens, I felt the city’s constant exaltation of electric energy. I’m currently in San Francisco, where the depth of field lies beyond the Marin Headlands, and the scent of the ocean breeze catches you off guard, and oh, that California light! Pune, my childhood home, is the city of secrets and contradictions, and quiet architectural wonder. Western Samoa taught me to be brave and still finds its way into my dreams. Paros, the marble island in the Aegean Sea, was a place that reminded me that I’m an artist.
SA: The notion of assimilation plays an important role in your work. Could you share why you focus on it?
AM: My earlier considerations of assimilation emerged from my own desire to blend into and find a sense of acceptance within American society when I moved from India to the United States at 18. My current thoughts around the notions of assimilation are more centered around questions such as: At what cost? For whom? I also consider the consequences and efforts of assimilation from the perspective of my matrilineage, specifically my nani (maternal grandmother) and dadi (paternal grandmother), who fled their respective homes in Pakistan when they were children to arrive in India as refugees during the 1947 Partition of India under British colonial rule. Acknowledging the forced displacement of the women who came before me and their ensuing resilience has fueled my practice and deepened my own understanding of the ever-evolving, mutable nature of identity.
Photo: Anna-Alexia Basile.
SA: What were some unexpected outcomes or moments of growth during your solo exhibition at Yossi Milo Gallery that you hadn’t anticipated before the show?
AM: New colors were added to my palette—a mauve-purple-violet-pink color was birthed from the spring light of New York City and made its way into my work. Additionally, the constraints of working in a small studio in the city removed the distance between the paintings and me and brought unexpected, intimate perspectives of observing the subjects in my work. I often felt as though I was painting inside of the painting. The focus on minute details—a therapeutic effort of self-soothing to anchor myself in temporary space also became quite apparent to me.
SA: While you’re primarily known for your paintings, you’ve also been exploring other mediums like sculpture and film. How do these mediums complement your voice as an artist?
AM: Some ideas just want to be expressed in other shapes and forms, as was the case with bringing my first short film, “Landscapes of Longing,” to life. Made with filmmakers Alisha Tejpal and Mireya Martinez, it is an experimental auto-fiction that follows the journey of transience across three generations of my family—my nani, my mother, and myself. The storytelling ability of film as a medium has been profoundly enriching for my practice. Additionally, I’m working on some sculptural works and installation-based works, which shall be revealed when the time is right!
SA: You’re currently doing an artist residency in San Francisco through Jonathan Carver Moore’s gallery. Could you tell us what you’re developing during this time?
AM: I’m currently working on a new body of work that marks a liberation in my practice from architectural space and crosses a threshold into expansive, natural environments. How can we hold on to our sense of agency, comfort, security, and intimacy when we move out of the physical structures of domestic space, the four walls so to speak? It’s a very apt body of work for my homecoming to California.
Installation view of Anoushka Mirchandani: A House Called Tomorrow. Courtesy of the artist and Yossi Milo Gallery.
SA: Who are some Indian female artists who inspire you?
AM: Right now, I’m captivated by Nalini Malani’s video works, especially In Search of Vanished Blood at the Tate Modern in London. I haven't even had a chance to see it in person yet, and I’m already inspired by viewing images and clips of it online. I hope to be able to experience it soon. I’m also a big admirer of Mrinalini Mukherjee and Rina Banerjee.
SA: Finally, could you tell us about your plans for 2025?
AM: 2025 started with the continuation of my solo exhibition, A House Called Tomorrow, at Yossi Milo in NYC. From Jan 22nd to 26th, 2025, I will have a presentation of five new works at FOG Design+Art in San Francisco with Jonathan Carver Moore. In February, I will attend the world premiere of my aforementioned short film, “Landscapes of Longing,” made with filmmakers Alisha Tejpal and Mireya Martinez, at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. I will also be at the India Art Fair this February, and I am looking forward to speaking on a panel for the IAF Talks Programme with a few other diasporic creators. Stay tuned for additional projects in 2025!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
