Rajkamal Kahlon
Rajkamal Kahlon’s work builds on twenty years of extensive research into drawing and painting as sites of political resistance and draws on legacies of colonialism, often using the material culture, documents, and aesthetics of Western colonial archives. Her artistic research, at the intersection of visuality, violence, and colonial histories, has evolved to reflect on how trauma and the body are at the center of colonial violence. Specifically, the body in the archive, the one that has been studied and objectified at the center of her practice, attempting to care for, rehabilitate, and give voice to the men and women she encounters in the archives. Kahlon attended the Whitney Independent Study Program (WISP) and received her MFA from CCA. Her work has been exhibited in museums, foundations, and biennials in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. She is the recipient of numerous grants, awards, and commissions including the Joan Mitchell Painting and Sculpture Award, Pollock Krasner Award, Stiftung Kunstfonds Arbeitstipendium, Goethe Institute Kunstlerstipendium, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Security Project Artist-in-Residence, Melon Visiting Artist Fellowship, Newhouse Center, Wellesley College, SWICH Artist-in-Residence, Weltmuseum Wien, the 2019 Villa Romana Prize, and the 2020 Berlin Artist Grant.