Meet the Artists

Amanda T. Silva is a visual multimedia artist born and raised by a strong Sri Lankan community in Staten Island, New York. Silva received her BA in Studio Art: Multimedia from American University in 2012 where she received the Glenn Goodman Scholarship and Elizabeth van Swinderen Scholarship. She has lived in Washington, DC, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Indonesia. In 2025, she relocated to Houston, TX.

She has completed live performances and installations in Washington, DC, and Sydney, Australia. Her artwork has been exhibited in group venues at the Katzen Museum, Washington, DC; the Oxford Arts Festival, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Sabine Street Studios, Houston, TX; and Spring Street Studios, Houston, TX.

Ami Mehta is a multidisciplinary artist and architectural designer primarily working in ink, pastel, printmaking and textiles. She was born in Louisiana but grew up in the Middle East and lived in twelve cities on three continents by the time she was twenty-five. Harnessing this "Fourth Culture" awareness, Ami's figurative work explores how immigrants and refugees lose their sense of place not once but in a recurring cycle of re-displacement, as memories of their homeland progressively decay with age. And with the erosion of these recollections, the trivial can start to transform into mystical symbols and their past world can linger not as nostalgia but as a haunting, a phantom limb, a crushing presence born of absence. Ami's work delves into the ways that this cyclical grieving & loss of belonging sediments into the bones of their future generations.

Anchored with hand-carved block prints and embroidery inspired by traditional techniques, her collaged layers of raw Indian textiles retain a sense of misalignment and partialness, reflecting the inherently flawed, fragmentary quality of memory. The artmaking Process is a medium just as tangible as paint and the sketch studies, color swatches & notes in the margins are preserved in every piece.

Her pieces can be found in institutional art collections such as the City of Houston, University of Houston, Fort Bend County, Houston Endowment foundation, the Alamo College System, San Antonio University Women and Children's Hospital, Northshore University Hospital, and Dallas Methodist Medical Center. Her abstract pieces on metal can be found in various hospitality spaces around the country such as Four Seasons, JW Marriott, Magnolia Hotel, The Gwen, The Westin and ICON's House Zero.

Amisha Jay Dalwadi is an artist and ceramicist whose work explores ancestry, ritual, texture, and transformation through clay.

Her connection to clay is deeply personal. Her grandmother once made clay toys to sell and later handmade bricks, shaping earth into objects of beauty, function, and survival. That family history lives at the heart of Amisha's practice. For her, clay is more than a medium. It is memory, lineage, and a way of honoring the hands that came before her.

Through ceramics, Amisha creates work that feels grounded, soulful, and intentional. She is drawn to the physical nature of clay, the way it responds to touch, pressure, water, fire, and time. Each piece becomes a conversation between inherited craft and contemporary expression, holding both personal history and spiritual presence.

Her work is guided by a desire to transform raw earth into objects that carry meaning, beauty, and connection.

Anjali Nanda is a Houston-based contemporary artist whose practice brings traditional Indian art forms into conversation with contemporary visual expression. Raised in India and now based in Texas, she draws inspiration from the rich storytelling traditions of Madhubani, Gond, and Pichwai art.

Working primarily with acrylic, ink, and gold accents, Nanda is known for compositions that combine bold visual presence with intricate hand-rendered details. Her work frequently incorporates symbolic elements from nature, including trees, birds, animals, and botanical forms, to explore themes of connection, belonging, resilience, abundance, and the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Rather than reproducing traditional forms, Nanda reinterprets their techniques, patterns, and visual language through her own contemporary perspective. Her work reflects the experience of carrying cultural heritage across geographies while allowing it to evolve through personal experience and artistic exploration.

Nanda's work has been presented at juried exhibitions and art festivals throughout the Houston area, including Bayou City Art Festival and The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival. Through her practice, she seeks to create a visual bridge between heritage and contemporary life, inviting viewers to discover both the stories embedded within Indian artistic traditions and their universal resonance.

A Houstonian of South Asian (Indian) origin, Anu has been actively creating art for over 35 years. She has worked with a variety of media over the years creating sculptures, paintings and performance & live visual art. Today, she primarily works with oil and acrylic with a focus on large abstracts.

Born in New Orleans and raised in Houston, and having also lived in Oslo, Mumbai and Goa, Anu often incorporates cultural themes from her life experiences into her work.

She regularly donates her paintings towards fundraising efforts for various nonprofit organizations. She was a volunteer resident artist for Houston Via Colori Street Painting festival for 14 years, from its inception in 2006 until the event closed its doors in 2019.

Texas born and raised, Chatna Vyas's artistic journey began in the spartan, undecorated spaces of the motels her parents managed. Growing up in small towns that often lacked traditional Hindu places of worship, her earliest connection to faith was formed around the simple, intimate home temples her mother built and lovingly maintained. After moving to Houston she was introduced to grander, formal temples, sparking a lifelong curiosity about the nuances of culture, faith, and identity.

Chatna's deep love for Indian traditional dance and heritage seamlessly translates onto the canvas through vivid storytelling, intricate craftsmanship, and expressive movement. Drawing inspiration from rich cultural traditions, she transforms quiet, everyday moments into defined, meditative works of art that speak to both beauty and devotion.

Her artistic path gained momentum during her college years through collaborative mural projects with Interfaith Ministries and Houston Community College, fueling a lifelong passion for creating immersive spaces that foster connection. Over the years, her community-focused contributions have been featured in initiatives with Rice University, Chinmaya Mission, and Vallabh Vidya Mandir, as well as various local temple exhibitions.

Each of Chatna's creations is a thoughtful exploration, layering heritage, symbolism, and contemporary expression to produce work that feels both timeless and deeply personal. For Chatna, art is far more than a visual medium; it is an emotional experience. Her work warmly invites viewers and collectors to engage with story and tradition in a way that brings lasting presence, purpose, and meaning into any space.

Born and raised in Mumbai, India, contemporary artist Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee is internationally recognized for her interdisciplinary, research-based artistic practice informed by firsthand data and experiences collected in the ocean and dedicated to marine conservation.

A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her practice has been shaped by nearly two decades of scuba diving and extensive field research worldwide. Her work has been presented in solo museum exhibitions, museums, galleries, international art fairs, and institutional public art commissions throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, including Mumbai, Beijing, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dubai. Mahimtura Folmsbee presented her work at the United Nations in New York in conjunction with the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, 2021.

Her notable public art includes permanent institutional commissions for Houston Airports, The Aquarius Art Tunnel and Water Wisps: Sanctuary Bubbles. Collaborations and commissioned projects include Skechers, the Houston Chevron Marathon, Super Bowl LI, and FIFA World Cup initiatives. Her solo museum exhibition, MAGIC WATER, was endorsed as an official activity of the United Nations Ocean Decade.

Her work has been in press nationally and internationally with cover stories in the Houston Chronicle, The India review of the world of furniture, The Gulf Coast Journal, and editorial write ups in Harper's Bazaar Malaysia, The Times of India, PaperCity, Texas Arts & Culture, Hello Magazine and ABC News. Her honors include the National Mural Award, CODAworx People's Choice Award, recognition as a CODAworx Creative Revolutionary, and PIA MidAmerica GraphEx Gold Award.

Jigna Patel is a Chicago-based, non-traditionally trained abstract artist whose practice is guided by her Guru and the flow of divine energy. Rooted in the spiritual and restorative power of the natural world, her work examines humanity's innate desire for grounding, connection, and transcendence through nature.

Starting each painting with a meditation to channel divine energy, and then using textured paste and palette knife techniques, Patel creates layered compositions of landscapes, animals, and organic forms set against ethereal backgrounds. Through the incorporation of mixed media and occasionally, fabric, her works evoke themes of hope, resilience, empowerment, and love, inviting viewers into spaces of reflection, healing, and spiritual connection.

Manju Unnikrishnan is a Houston-based artist whose work bridges traditional inspiration and contemporary expression. Working primarily in acrylics and watercolor, she creates vibrant paintings that celebrate nature, culture, personal growth, and the beauty found in everyday moments. Her artistic style ranges from traditional Kerala mural-inspired works to abstract and modern compositions, often characterized by rich textures, expressive color palettes, and intricate details.

Drawing inspiration from the natural world, human resilience, and diverse cultural influences, Manju's artwork invites viewers to pause, reflect, and connect. Through her creative practice, she explores themes of transformation, hope, and emotional storytelling.

In addition to painting, Manju is a calligrapher who enjoys creating personalized artwork and custom commissions. Her passion for creativity extends beyond the canvas as she shares artistic techniques through classes and workshops for both children and adults.

Through every piece she creates, Manju aims to bring beauty, inspiration, and a sense of wonder into the spaces where people live, work, and gather.

Pothik Chatterjee is a South Asian-American painter whose practice engages abstraction as a contemplative and philosophical space shaped by diasporic experience. Drawing on Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, his work explores interior states not as purely personal expressions, but as sites where cultural memory, migration, and spiritual inquiry intersect. His transnational upbringing across India, the Middle East, and Europe informs a visual language that resists fixed geographic identity.

Born in Kolkata and shaped by a transnational upbringing across Paris, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Jakarta, Chatterjee approaches painting as a process of layering, both materially and conceptually. His compositions unfold through translucent fields of color, rhythmic mark-making, and the subtle presence of gold, evoking atmospheres that oscillate between structure and dissolution. These visual languages reference not only meditative practices, but also the instability and fluidity of identity across geographies.

While rooted in abstraction, his work resists a purely formalist reading. Instead, it operates within a lineage of painters who engage the canvas as a space for metaphysical and perceptual inquiry. Chatterjee's paintings invite sustained looking, where shifts in light, surface, and color reveal emotional and symbolic depth over time.

Chatterjee's practice is notable for its balance between accessibility and depth, works that resonate immediately through color and atmosphere, while sustaining longer engagement through their symbolic and cultural layering.

There is a natural alignment between his work and collectors interested in contemporary abstraction with a strong philosophical or spiritual underpinning, particularly within globally informed collections.

Shows include Artscape, the largest public art festival in the US in 2025, 'Color Theory' at Maison 10 in New York City in Summer 2023, Solo Show 'Baltimore Butterfly' at Highlandtown Gallery in Winter 2023, 10-Year Anniversary Show in Jan 2024 at Highlandtown, Creative Confluences' South Asian Artist Exhibition at Towson University's Asian Art Gallery in Baltimore in Fall 2022, and 'Big Devi Energy' in Houston in Fall 2024 and 2025, "On Balance" in Houston at Womble, Bond & Dickinson in 2026.

Purvi Shah (b. 1989) is a South Asian artist based in Houston, Texas whose practice examines the complexities of bi-cultural and diasporic identity. Drawing from her Indian upbringing, Shah's work explores the visual and symbolic language of tradition through a contemporary lens.

Rooted in personal and collective moments of joy, loss, transition, and reflection, Shah's practice is deeply introspective. Her current body of work channels her love for the intricate borders of traditional garments and the delicate fluidity of henna patterns, both long associated with auspiciousness, celebration, and positive energy. She reinterprets the motifs through her modern compositions, merging cultural memory with contemporary expression into a textured foundation.

Shah's deliberate structural choice to mount a secondary canvas symbolizes the duality inherent in immigrant and diasporic experience. The interaction reflects two coexisting worlds: the cultural memory that anchors her, and the lived reality that shapes her present. Their alignment, tension, and harmony mirror the negotiations of belonging that define a life lived between different cultures.

Her work invites viewers into a space that honors imperfection, continuity, and the evolving nature of identity.

Sheetal Dalwadi is a multidisciplinary artist working with preserved moss, ink, acrylic, and mixed media to explore the relationship between nature, culture, and human connection. Her work is inspired by the belief that art can transform spaces while encouraging moments of reflection, healing, and wonder.

Sheetal's artistic journey began more than 25 years ago as a henna artist, where she developed a deep appreciation for intricate patterns, craftsmanship, and storytelling rooted in her Indian heritage. These influences continue to shape her work today, whether expressed through the organic textures of moss, the precision of ink, or the expressive qualities of paint and mixed media.

In 2019, Sheetal's artistic path took a transformative turn when she was commissioned to create a calming artwork for a medical clinic. While working on the project, she discovered the beauty and restorative qualities of preserved moss and botanical materials. This experience sparked a deep connection with the natural world and inspired her to dedicate her creative practice to moss and botanical art.

Regardless of the medium, Sheetal's work celebrates the beauty of the natural world while creating meaningful connections between people and their environments. Her moss art has received recognition through art competitions, including first-place awards, and she has also captivated audiences through live art demonstrations at events. Through each piece, she hopes to inspire viewers to slow down, reflect, and rediscover the quiet balance that nature offers.

Shital Dalwadi is a multidisciplinary artist working with metal, enamel, jewelry, textiles, and block printing. Her work is grounded in hands-on processes and a close attention to how materials change through pressure, heat, repetition, and touch.

In her metalwork, Dalwadi uses foldforming to shape flat sheets of metal through folding, hammering, and opening. She often adds enamel to bring color and surface to the work. Her jewelry practice extends this interest in form and material to pieces made in relationship to the body.

Dalwadi also works with textiles and hand block printing, using pattern, repetition, and layering to explore surface and movement. These processes allow her to move between sculptural objects, wearable work, and fabric while maintaining a consistent interest in making by hand.

Her background in classical Indian dance influences her awareness of rhythm, gesture, and the body. Across materials, Dalwadi's work reflects an interest in process, craftsmanship, and the ways familiar materials can be shaped into forms that feel both structured and organic.

Sneha Bhavsar is a Houston based visual artist exploring folk art traditions and techniques in her paintings, public art installations, and handicrafts. By incorporating folk art motifs through craft techniques such as embroidery, papercutting, and hand-block printing, Sneha creates art that is both contemporary and rooted in tradition. Her work visually reflects how stories and memory are carried in a motif, a stitch, a pattern; allowing the work to serve as a living history of cultural heritage and identity. Sneha's South Asian background heavily inspires and guides her creative practice and encourages her to foster an appreciation for inclusivity and cultural diversity. In her recent works, she intertwines socially engaged art with the lived experiences of Houston's refugee and immigrant artisans. Her creative practice has expanded to include relational art-making, which invites participation through donated materials, communal engagement, and interaction with completed works.

Sneha's work has been recognized and awarded commissions from the Houston Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, the Houston Endowment, BIPOC Arts Network and Fund, Connect Community, and private organizations and individuals across the US.

Sneha continues to blend her love of creating art with her aspirations to serve her community. As Director of Artistic Programming for House of Devi, she is committed to supporting the creative voices of South Asian artists in Houston. Additionally, she serves as a Board member for Compassionate Houston, and is a founding member of the Compassion Through the Arts Program. Sneha has previously served as Vice Chair of the City of Bellaire Culture and Arts Board and Houston Children Give Back.