Pressing Identities 23 May – 20 June 2015 at West Yorkshire Print workshop

Contemporary Printmakers from India and Sri Lanka.

Pressing Identities brings together the work of four contemporary artists all exploring notions of belonging, displacement and personal cultural heritage through the medium of printmaking.

The exhibition investigates the disparate ways in which these artists express, celebrate and question the idiosyncrasies of their ethnic origins, having been born and raised in India and Sri Lanka. In the works displayed, traces of the artists’ past experiences living in these countries are intertwined with impressions of their present-day lives as inhabitants of Bournemouth, Bristol, Kent and London. Differences in societal attitudes towards femininity and womanhood, as well as contrasts in architectural and urban environments encountered, are trigger points for many of the artworks, each artist concerned with the complex nature of female identity as torn between cultures and cities, East and West.

Whilst exploiting the autobiographical potential of the print process, the works also reveal the artists to be individually and innovatively embracing new modes of production as commanded by rapid technological advancements. The artists are widely celebrated for their aptitude in using time-honoured printmaking techniques in conjunction with new digital processes, offering up contemporary reflections on traditional South Asian aesthetics and the medium in general.

Exhibiting artists are:

Chitra Merchant www.chitra.co.uk

Sumi Perera www.saatchiart.com/sumiperera

Jhuma Sharma Roy www.cattogallery.co.uk/jhuma-sharma-roy

Preeti Sood www.mapart.net/preetisood