Mona Rai (b.1947) received a Master’s in Psychology at Delhi University and studied art at Triveni Kala Sangam. Rai is an abstractionist who explores the expressive potential of different materials such as metallic leaves, fabrics, glitter, sand, gravel, dirt and ash in her paintings. Her process is rooted in risk-taking. Many of her works, both on canvas and paper, resemble battlegrounds: scorched, trampled, slit, wounded, scratched, scarred, bleeding and weeping to rend objects into emotional states and aesthetic consciousness. At other times, she creates shimmering fields of color that dazzle and oscillate in the light, with imagery informed by craft production and ritual art forms. Rai takes inspiration from her environment, responding to nature and its manifestations in the animal, vegetable and mineral realms; and science, language, and their proliferation through technological means.

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