About

ICA San Diego presents an exhibition of new sculptural works and ink paintings by multimedia artist Sreshta Rit Premnath.

Exploring resilience in the face of marginalization, Sreshta Rit Premnath (b. Bangalore, India, 1979, based in Brooklyn, NY) presents site-specific sculptures that cohabitate with plants in the gallery.

Grave/Grove draws parallels between social exclusion and the horticultural category of “weeds” — plants that are either removed or suppressed because they are considered undesirable. His installation is informed by the austere and makeshift architecture of refugee camps and homeless settlements, while also drawing attention to the abundance and resilience that persists in spaces of adversity.

Sreshta Rit Premnath: Grave/Grove is co-curated by Amara Antilla, CAC Senior Curator and Natalie Bell, MIT List Curator. It is co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati and the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge. The presentation at Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego is coordinated by Guusje Sanders, Associate Curator.

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A special thanks to Cris Juárez from Pixca Farm for the care and thoughtfulness put into the growing of the plants in the exhibition.

Pixca Farm is POC worker cooperative farm that advances food sovereignty. They implement diversified, ecological farming in service of our South Bay community. Pixca Farm is innovatively creating an agroecological world. They envision a cooperative community that activates its existing abundance to ensure collective wellness, principally that everyone is guaranteed fresh, local, culturally relevant food and is in respectful relationship with land and the environment.

Grave / Grove install view, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, 2021, photography by Wes Battoclette
Artist Portrait by Kevin Bubriski

This exhibition is generously supported by