Four immigrant artists come together at Oakland, CA, art show

Featuring Indian Americans Sujata Tibrewala and Nimisha Doongarwal, the show explores identity and tradition through their art.

Often, it is the stories told through non-confirmative mediums that can have a long-lasting impact on the public. With this vision in mind, a gallery in Oakland, California, is bringing together four artists with immigrant backgrounds. Through their works, these artists are presenting diverse stories of being a refugee, an immigrant, or a diaspora member, and how these experiences have affected their lives in the country they chose to call their new home.

Titled “Breaking the Frame,” the exhibition opens on August 4 with a reception and talk featuring the participating artists and will run through September 15. Through mixed media, collage, and the rupturing of frames and borders, the artists raise questions about our understanding of race, gender, belonging, history, and culture, while expanding our perspectives on time, identity, and tradition.

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Each artist brings their unique perspective. One of them, Dalar Alahverdi, is of Armenian descent but grew up in Iran. She earned her bachelor’s in painting from Tehran University and her master’s in art education from California State University. Her works advocate for social justice and human rights.

Another artist, Sujata Tibrewala, pursued a rewarding career in software, working with some of the top tech firms in the Bay Area. An immigrant from Jaipur, India, Tibrewala’s work addresses topics such as equality, generational repression, women’s rights, and questions about patriarchy.

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Growing up amid a diverse culture in India and then embracing her new life as an immigrant in America’s melting pot – the buzz of big cities like Los Angeles ironically showed her that the same patriarchy she saw back home in India also exists in one of the most ‘liberal’ economies, albeit in a different format.

For the show, Tibrewala brought along her series called “Quantum Connection,” where she uses her background in science to illustrate how the universe created us all as equals, but man-made differences divide us.

“It is especially important for Indians back home in India as well as in America to ponder that we all are equal and have the same shared experiences, we are packed with the same atoms that bind the universe,” Tibrewala told the American Bazaar from her Bay Area home. “In today’s time of divisive politics, it is important to come and learn that the beginning of us all is an atom and then the end of us all is also the same. My work will try to resonate the idea that it is better to be one as the universe made us rather than dwell in differences and upset the balance of this world.”

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The exhibit would also showcase the works of Nimisha Doongarwal, another Indian immigrant artist who moved to the US in the late 2000s to pursue higher education in science. Her works are about finding her own identity as a global citizen.

The fourth artist at the exhibit, Forrest McGarvey, uses digital collage, video, installations, and the medium of paper to create narrative works about identity.

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The exhibition holds significance as it provides a platform for artists of color to showcase their unique experiences while also shedding light on the scarcity of spaces where minority artists can freely practice and create awareness about their backgrounds.

WHAT: Breaking the Frame

WHERE: ARTogether Center, 1200 Harrison Street, Oakland, CA 94612

WHEN: August 4-September 15
Opening reception: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm