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courtesy of artist and Kavi Gupta gallery
![Suchitra Mattai, a mighty queen, 2023](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1600,h_1600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/kavigupta/images/view/e24fb1e96964f8644231c523e6989323j/kaviguptagallery-suchitra-mattai-a-mighty-queen-2023.jpg)
Suchitra Mattai Guyana, b. 1973
a mighty queen, 2023
Graphite, watercolor, pen, found wood trees, and 19th century book page from "The Grammar of Ornament," on paper
14 x 10 in
35.6 x 25.4 cm
35.6 x 25.4 cm
8790
The figure pictured here is inspired by a South Asian woman in a found, antique photograph. Rendered in graphite, this heroine looks out from a frame built out of pages...
The figure pictured here is inspired by a South Asian woman in a found, antique photograph. Rendered in graphite, this heroine looks out from a frame built out of pages torn from The Grammar of Ornament, a colonial-era design book notorious for co-opting the visual languages of colonized cultures. She is surrounded by a forest of found wooden trees. This piece belongs to a series Suchitra Mattai debuted in 2023, memorializing super heroines as embodiments of feminine empowerment. A lot of these works celebrate the power of women, while simultaneously reimagining colonial narratives. “These elements are tied together, so I find it hard to extricate them,” says Mattai. “The wonder of art is that it doesn’t have to be one element. Stories are complex. I want to portray that in the works.”