Meenal Raghava

Click on the image to open the gallery

Moving between New Delhi and New York has shaped my understanding of identity as something lived rather than inherited—an ever-evolving negotiation formed by memory, distance, and the sustained effort of belonging. My practice asks how one might feel at home while in motion, and what visual language can hold the subtle, often unspoken dimensions of that state.

My works function as speculative architectures—constructed spaces that trace how memory settles into the body, how cultural lineages endure, splinter, and reconfigure, and how place is continually rewritten through presence and absence. These structures are not fixed; they remain open, porous, and in flux.

Materiality anchors this exploration. I work with oils, acrylics, concrete, and epoxy to build surfaces that parallel the inner frameworks of identity. Industrial materials lend gravity and resistance, while color moves freely—carrying emotional residue, historical charge, and the possibility of change. My visual language draws from the contemplative stillness of color field painting, the perceptual inquiries of Impressionism, and the ornamental intensity of Indian miniature and tribal traditions. Their convergence mirrors hybridity itself: layered, unresolved, and generative.

Each piece unfolds as a meditative environment, rewarding duration rather than immediacy. Through expansive chromatic fields, shifts in light, and tactile depth, I aim to create spaces in which viewers may encounter their own states of in-betweenness—where memory softens at the edges, identity stretches beyond definition, and the future remains open.

At its core, my work is a commitment to becoming. It lives in thresholds—between geographies, temporalities, and certainties. Rather than offering closure, these works seek to hold transformation in view, honoring its instability and its quiet, enduring beauty.