Antra Sinha

BIOGRAPHY

Antra Sinha is a ceramic artist, educator, and community builder with the arts. She received her BFA & MFA from the MS University of Baroda in India. She was then an apprentice to Ray Meeker at Golden Bridge Pottery starting in 2002, where she worked for a decade. An award from Japan Foundation took her to the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan for a six-month residency. She completed a large-scale sculpture there, which brought her a commission in 2011 for a five-foot sculpture for a hotel in India.

She designed and built a unique kiln and set up a ceramic studio, Earth Art, in Pondicherry, India. In 2015, she received a STEM scholarship to pursue her second MFA at Utah State University, which she completed in 2018.

The key themes found in her artistic practice are the elemental and geometric forms found in nature. She is inspired by the macro and the micro of the universe. In her creative work she uses various processes involved in making sculptural works, including wheel-throwing, hand-building, coiling, slip cast in mold, as well as newer technologies.

She has attended conferences, residencies, exhibited, and worked with artists in Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Germany, Taiwan, Korea, Denmark, and USA. She has received several awards, including the NCECA Multicultural Fellowship in 2016. She is a member of IAC, ARTAXIS, ISCAEE, ICAF, and UTAHCLAYARTS. She served as a standing committee member for NCECA’s Collaboration & Engagement from 2021 - 23. She currently serves on the board of NCECA as On-Site Conference Liaison. She lives with her husband in Logan, UT, where she serves as Gallery Coordinator and Art Instructor at Utah State University.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Nature fascinates me. When I see nature, I see geometry. I am inspired by structures created by the golden mean and its various permutations that emerge and evolve from the micro of the organism to the macro of the universe. My work is guided by the material itself. I feel that in some ways, I am the material that I am working with I am molding clay, yet it is molding me. I feel that my mind, spirit, and body must work in concert to manifest the forms, which I then offer to the fire, surrendering to the exogenous forces of the cosmos.

For this series of work, I found inspiration in 1997 in viewing an ancient ritual object, called Aditi, from a catalogue of an exhibition curated by Rajiv Sethi called The Living Traditions of India. The work was from the Indus Valley Civilization. I have made several iterations of this form since then. Through this process, the work has evolved, as have I. In my current spiritual practice, I contemplate the tangible and the intangible that co-exist in the world. Through research of

ancient Indian scriptures and their modern interpretations, I work with the notion of the tangible=feminine energy and intangible=masculine energy. I seek to express this duality and interdependence, which is often very different than modern thought on gender roles, in my work.

Aditi is a three-dimensional interpretation of the female symbol. Aditi is the Hindi word for Mother of Fertility/Creativity. I interpret it as the feminine energy, which bears the fruit. In my work, I am expressing the intangible, masculine energy as being hidden or submerged, yet inherent in life.

The sculpture – Aditi 5_USU, is a voluptuous jar with a cross on the lid. The lid has a protrusion, which enters inside, and it sits on the opening of the jar. Through this form I wish to express the unity of the two energies and interpret it as creation itself.

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