National Origins Formula (Series), 2022, Screenprints on Eco-Printed Linen with Coreopsis and Marigolds, 36 x 48 inches
Part of the show Designing The Dream State
Be Realistic, Plan for a Miracle, 2016, Assemblage, 4.5 x 3.25 x 0.5 inches
*PMH (2003-Present)
I Don't Taste Spice, 2023, Found Objects and Wood, 50 x 43 x 2.5 inches
A Great Adventure: New Jercy / Verginia,1975-2023, Installation; Video Work From Found Films and Sound, 6 projections
Fast Friends (2005)
Prism 1965, 2023, Performance, Digital Projection; Collaboration between Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith.
When We Opened Our Eyes, They Had The Land and We Had The Bible, 2019, Collage (framed); Found Objects, Rudraksha Beads and Flowers, 54 x 42 x 4.5 inches
Washed No.1 , 30" x 40", Collage and Silkscreen on found lithographs
Pramod Pati (ThisOnly), 2021, Wearable; Screenprint on Fabric
The Arch Motel Project, 2005-present, Giclée Print; Medium-Format Photograph (Framed), 36 x 36 inches
Why You So Negative? (Timeline), 2019
#WhitePeopleDoingYoga 2014-2019, Installation; Found Objects, 33.5 x 15 Feet
Magic Dollar, 2021, Found Object, 13.4 x 20 inches
Blowback (2022)
Health, Wealth, Self, 2021, Sculpture; Skin Lightening Tin with Mirror, 26.3 x 14.65 x 1.2 inches
Ful-Fillment, 2023, Screenprints on Wood; Resin, Wood, Teak Oil, 61 x 34 x 43.75 inches
I Don't See Colored, 2022, Book; Digital Press, Perfect Bound, 8 x 5.5 inches / 60 pages
ThisOnly Version One (2015). 100 Obects, juxtaposed with a piece of media
)Pumas, 2015, Found Object, 7 x 11 inches. 1 of 100 objects that was part of Version One of "I Want This Only"
Harry Jack's Gray Area, 2023, Machine-Cut Walnut, Acrylic Paint, Polyurethane, 30 x 24 x 2.75 inches
Das Racist, 2011, Screenprints on paper, 18 x 24 inches
Cover for Heem's single "Sometimes" off his album "Eat Pray Thug" (2015)
See To Day, 2018, 2025, Book; Risograph, screenprint, Digital Press, Emboss, Wire-O binding, 17 x 11 inches / 108 pages, Published by Colpa Press,
Washed (Series), 2015-2018, Collage and Screenprint Ink on Found Lithographs
Just Relax (2022)
It was great to see the smile from the sticker vendor in Goa after I gifted him a stack of my stickers—and watched him start selling them.
2nd place trophy I won in a rangoli competition (1989)
First appearance in white face 1983 ?
Rogue, 2019, Performance, Collaboration with Nikhil Chopra
Business card (2002)
(2015) In the car with Ashim, Bombay
Home Of The Brave, 2017-2018, Performance, Digital Projection; Collaboration with Vijay Iyer at his residencies at SF Jazz and The Kitchen, NY.
"Eat Pray Thug" Cover for Heems (2015)
(1984) Metal Pin commemorating a USSR space expedition that carried the first Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, along with Soviet crew members.
Washed (Series), 2015-2018, Collage and Screenprint Ink on Found Lithographs
Compartmentalize, (Series), 2016, Assemblage; Paper, Found Objects, Yoga Mat, Dry Wall, 36 x 36 x 2 inches
Mad Racial, 2015, Collage, 8 x 10 inches
Visit Article — Essay published by Mother Jones Magazine that accompanied the exhibition "Why You So Negative?" at Human Resources Los Angeles (2019)
Cover for Heem's single "Home" featuring Dev Hynes, Blood Orange (2015)
(2006) Koushik (Stones Throw) spinning at a *PMH party @ the Royal Bangladesh, 1st Ave, New York, NY
(2023) National Origins Formula, No. 2, Screenprints on eco printed linen, 38"x50"
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Artist, Designer, Archivist
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Chiraag Bhakta is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is rooted in collecting objects, archival research, storytelling and collaboration in a variety of media including: printmaking, collage, photography and assemblage. Raised in an independent motel on a New Jersey freeway surrounded by a rotation of extended family, Bhakta received his BFA in graphic design from the Hartford Art School. Over the years, while working as a graphic designer, he has been exploring his personal work. Much of his art practice probes the residues that power leaves behind—how the architectures of empire linger in the mundane, and how stories fracture and recombine across borders. In doing so, he also unsettles the official lenses through which these histories are typically framed.
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PardonMyHindi@gmail.com
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Born in Somerville, NJ
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Education
1999 BFA Graphic Design, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, CT
Solo Exhibitions
2025 See to Day | Escolar, Santa Rosa, CA
2025 Walk Backwards Into The Future | HH Art Spaces, Goa, India
2023/2026 Designing the Dream State | Joseloff Gallery, Hartford, CT | Raritan Valley Community College, New Jersey
2021/2022 Visions and Nightmares | ThisOnly | NADA House, Governors Island, NY | Rawson Projects | Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, NY
2019/2022 Why You So Negative? | Human Resources LA, Los Angeles, CA | Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, NY
Select Group Exhibitions
2024The Other Art Fair | Escolar, Los Angeles, CA
2023 City of Faith | Museum of the City of NY, New York, NY
2021 Visions and Nightmares | curated by Baseera Khan, ThisOnly | Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY
2019 The Nude Show | The Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, TX
2019 Jagah // Jadoo | Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
2018 Spirited Probabilities | Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2018 Thought Bubble | Aicon Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Indernet | Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne, Germany
2017 Mind Control | Alter Space, San Francisco, CA
2017 Window Winnipeg | Artspace, Winnipeg, Canada
2016 Where We Belong: Artists in the Archive | SAADA, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2015 Visualizing our Americana | The Gateway Project, Newark, NJ
2015 Eat Pray Thug | Aicon Gallery, New York, NY
2015 (Im)materiel | Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2014 Beyond Bollywood | Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC
2014 Yoga: The Art of Transformation | The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
2013 Blues For Smoke | Whitney Museum, New York, NY
2012 Southern Machine Exposure Project, Machine Project(LA) Southern Exposure (SF)
Collaborations
2025 Sanctuary | Alam Khan, Vijay Iyer, Nitin Mitta | The Freight, Berkeley, CA
2023 Prism 1965 | in collaboration with Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith | Millard Auditorium, Hartford, CT
2021 ThisOnly x BkM, Human Crop | Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Rouge | Nikhil Chopra | Human Resource, Los Angeles
2018 The What of The World | Vijay Iyer | The Kitchen, New York, NY
2018 Home of the Brave | Vijay Iyer Residency | SFJAZZ, San Francisco, CA
2017 Land of the Free | Vijay Iyer Residency | SFJAZZ, San Francisco, CA | Ojai Music Festival, Ojai, CA
2009 Rolly’s Garage, Toronto, Canada | G, Currylingus, K-Rock, Koushik (Stones Throw)
2006 Various functions on Clinton Street, New York, NY | D.D.P., Mahssa (Finders Keepers)
2006 Royal Bangladesh, New York, NY | D.D.P., Koushik (Stones Throw)
Extra
2025 See To Day (extended), Colpa Press | SF Art Book Fair / NY Art Book Fair
2018 See To Day, Colpa Press | NY Art Book Fair / SF Art Book Fair
2018 Legacy | Theater of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Select Awards & Grants
2025 Residency at HH Art Spaces, Goa, India
2022-23 Whitney Artist In Residence, Hartford Art School
2021 Foundation for Contemporary Arts, COVID-19 Bridge Fund
2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency Grant
2018 San Francisco Arts Commission, Individual Artist Grant
2017 South Asian American Digital Archive, Fellowship
2016 The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with SAADA, Grant
Select Talks/Panels
2023 Hartford Art School, “Whose Dream Are We Living?” panelmoderated by Anuradha Vikram
2022 Hartford Art School, Silpe Gallery, Artist Talk moderated by Billie Lee
2022 Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College Artist Talk with Vivek Boray
2017 New York University, NY, Artist Talk
2017 Queens Museum, Queens, NY — Fatal Love: Where Are We Now?
2017 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA — SAADA
2016 San Francisco State University, Artist Lecture Series
2015 California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Artist Talk
2014 University of California, Berkeley, CA
2014 The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, Artist Lecture Series
2013 Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, San Francisco, CA, Artist Lecture Series
Select Publications
2022 Moving Focus, India- New Perspectives on Modern & Contemporary Art, ACC Art Books, Mortimer Chatterjee
2019 Why You So Negative? , Mother Jones, Chiraag Bhakta
2016 Asian American History: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Madeline Y. Hsu
2015 Telling global stories, one at a time:The politics and poetics of exhibiting Asian art, Chang Tan/Penn State University
2014 Our Complicity With Excess, By Vijay Iyer @ Yale University
Select Press
2022 The Irregular Times: “In The Studio with Chiraag Bhakta”, Jan 02
2020 Far-Near: On Institutional Racism in the Arts: A Conversation with Chiraag Bhakta, Sept. 01
2020 FN—Newsletter: Colonization, Commodification and the Rise of Yoga™, Sept. 02
2020 New York Times: Asian Art Museum to Remove Bust of Patron, Jun 15
2020 CARLA: Chiraag Bhakta at Human Resources, Mar 30
2018 Al Jazeera: Why Americans Are So Obsessed With Yoga, Mar 25
2018 Pop-Up Magazine: Home Of The Brave, Jun 12
2018 Verve Magazine: Pop Goes The Bhakta, May 24
2017 SAADA: A conversation with Chiraag Bhakta, Mar 23
2017 Juxtapoz: The Arch Motel Project, Feb 27
2016 The Wire:How the Indian Diaspora Is Shaping the Battle for Yoga's Soul, Jul 20
2014 Caravan: An exhibition on Indian Americans strives to present the community’s story on its own terms, April 30
2014 Smithsonian Magazine: How Motel Ownership Offers Indian-Americans a Gateway to the American Dream, Feb 27text goes herext goes here
