EXHIBITION: Passport Cancelled
PASSPORT CANCELLED
Priya Kambli
OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, January 6th, from 5-8 pm
The calendar year will begin with photographic exhibitions by artist and educator, Priya Kambli and recent VCU Photo MFA graduate, Caroline Minchew.
Priya Kambli's latest project, Passport Cancelled, consists primarily of installation-based works, featuring cut gelatin silver letters and stenciled sugar messages. With this evolving series, Kambli blends traditions of the photographic process with nods to sculpture and performance to create an immersive, poetic experience for gallery visitors.
In 2011, I gave up my Indian nationality to become an American citizen. Doing so meant having my Indian passport invalidated at the Indian consulate with a stamp stating “Passport cancelled as the holder has acquired Foreign Nationality”. Having lived in the United States for over 17 years it seemed odd to claim my American nationality as “foreign”. This bureaucratic, emotionless language invalidating my Indian nationality will be the departure point for a new body of work, striving to understand the formation and erasure of identity that is an inevitable part of the migrant experience.
Priya Kambli received her MFA from the University of Houston and her BFA at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. She is currently Professor of Art at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.
Kambli has exhibited nationally and internationally and has given lectures around the country. She has attended residencies at Latitude (Chicago, IL), Lightwork (Syracuse, NY), and Center of Photography (Woodstock, NY). Her work has been published in Exposure, Aint-Bad, and Lenscratch, among many others. She was the recipient of PhotoLucida’s Book Award in 2010 for her series, Color Falls Down, and has been acknowledged several times over the last decade as a Critical Mass Top 50 artist. She is a multiple-time recipient of the PhotoNOLA Review Prize. In 2019, Kambli was awarded the United Photo Industries’ Female in Focus Award. Her works are in museum collections in New York, Illinois, and Texas.