An Undoing: Work by Preetika Rajgariah & Zuri Washington

An Undoing: Works by Preetika Rajgariah & Zuri Washington

Roots & Culture is ecstatic to announce our October Double Exposure exhibition, with new work by Preetika Rajgariah & Zuri Washington. The two artists were paired by Roots & Culture’s Programming Committee.

Preetika Rajgariah draws from her personal narrative to manipulate and reappropriate culturally significant materials, such as saris and sindoor, to explore notions of migration and home. Specifically, she concentrates on women in these spaces and uses a number of media to further examine societal standards and gender roles.

As a Black American, Zuri Washington’s work relies heavily on the superposition of both the appropriation and eradication of selfhood. Through the making of temporary, vulnerable spiritual structures, they explore and draw upon an ancestral narrative lost to time, violence, and erasure.

Preetika Rajgariah (b. 1985) is an interdisciplinary artist whose works examine the complicated intersections of cultural identity, race, and sexuality while referencing her upbringing as an Indian born American. Rajgariah has attended residencies at Oxbow School of Art, ACRE, Vermont Studio Center, and the School of Visual Arts, and she has exhibited at a variety of spaces such as Western Exhibitions, Roots & Culture, and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago as well as the Krannert Art Museum, Fort Gondo, and Art League Houston. She received her MFA from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and currently lives and works in Houston, TX.

Zuri Washington (b. 1993) is an interdisciplinary artist in the process of searching and repairing ancestral bonds broken by slavery. Zuri has been exhibited in galleries across the Chicagoland area such as Aurora Public Arts, NIU Art Museum, Sullivan Galleries, and is a part of both the Special Collections at the Art Institute and Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection. They received their MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently reside in Chicago.