Mithila Painting: Lecture and Workshop with South Asia Center Artist-in-Residence Shalinee Kumari

About This Event

Mithila painting is a traditional folk art style associated with women artists living in the Bihar region of northeastern India. Indian epics, such as the Ramayana, frequently feature in such art. Shalinee Kumari is an accomplished Mithila artist who teaches regularly at the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad and has had a two week residency at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Ms. Kumari, along with Professor Emerita Susan Wadley (Anthropology, Syracuse University), will discuss the history of Mithila painting and current trends, tying together its relationship to Indian epics with issues around the current exhibition at the Syracuse University Art Museum, “Mithila Women Paint Gender-Based Violence in the 21st Century." Ms. Kumari will then lead a workshop teaching basic Mithila painting techniques.

Featured Guests

• Shalinee Kumari, Artist-in-Residence, Syracuse University South Asia Center
• Susan Wadley, Professor Emerita, Syracuse University's Anthropology Department

Co-sponsors

Art supplies for participants will be provided by the CNY Humanities Corridor working group “Upstate South Asias: Citizenship, Comparison, and Equity” and SU's South Asia Center. Shalinee Kumari's artist-in-residence is made possible through generous funding from the Ray Smith Symposium "Rupture, Resistance, and Community: The Crisis of Violence against Women," presented by the Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences, which is part of the Syracuse University Humanities Center's Syracuse Symposium 2024-25: Community.