#88 - Rithika Merchant, Visual Mythmaker

Rithika Merchant is a visual artist from Bombay (Mumbai), India. Her work explores myths, stories and ideas shared by different cultures, featuring creatures and symbolism that are part of her personal visual vocabulary. Nature plays a pivotal role in her work and is emphasized by the use of organic shapes and non-saturated colors. Her paintings and collages are made using a combination of watercolor and cut paper elements, drawing on 17th century botanical prints and folk art, to create a body of work that is visually linked to our collective pasts.

Rithika received a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, New York. She has exhibited extensively since her graduation including a number of solo exhibitions in India, France, Spain, Germany and the United States. She has also collaborated with Chloé, a French fashion house on multiple collections for which she was awarded the Vogue India Young Achiever of the Year Award at its Women of the Year Awards 2018, as well as named one of Vogue Magazine’s VogueWorld 100 Creative Voices. Rithika is also the winner of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize - Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize for her painting “Saudade” as well as Le Prix DDessin Paris '21. Born in Bombay, she now divides her time between Bombay and Barcelona.

On this episode, Rithika discusses her cross-cultural and cosmic inspirations, crafting feminine art spells, and the power of painting new myths.

Pam also talks about spring flight, and answers a listener question about incorporating elements of a complicated religious past into her witchcraft.

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