Tampa, FL – The Tampa Museum of Art is thrilled to announce the opening of Suchitra Mattai: Bodies and Souls, the first solo museum exhibition in Florida and the Southeast for the acclaimed artist Suchitra Mattai. This groundbreaking exhibition will be on view from June 22, 2024, through March 16, 2025.
Suchitra Mattai: Bodies and Souls delves into themes of migration, matriarchy, and materiality, spotlighting Mattai’s innovative use of found materials, such as vintage saris. Through wrapping, braiding, stitching, and weaving these fabrics, Mattai creates works that serve as powerful allegories for historical and personal narratives. The exhibition features new installations alongside recent works, reflecting the artist’s ongoing exploration of the past and present.
In 2021, the Tampa Museum of Art received Mattai’s mixed-media painting Alter Ego (2020) as a gift. This captivating work, which features colorful saris and patterned fabric fragments, inspired the Bodies and Souls exhibition, reflecting its depiction of dual female silhouettes, symbolizing the dual identity of migrants as both newcomers and outsiders.
Born in Guyana, Mattai is of Indo-Caribbean descent and holds a BA in Statistics from Rutgers University, an MA in South Asian Art, and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2023, she was honored with an Anonymous Was a Woman Award and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. Her work is part of numerous prestigious collections, including the Nasher Museum of Art, Joslyn Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Portland Museum of Art.
Beyond the Tampa Museum of Art, Mattai’s work will be featured in solo exhibitions at ICA San Francisco, Socrates Sculpture Park, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 2024. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.