Sanjay Vora
Formed from Indian heritage, an American identity, and spiritualized visions of personal story
and memory, Vora's paintings become visual experiences as a result of a repetitive excavatory process, seeking meaning, truth and an eventual acceptance with our mortality.
Born in New Jersey into a musical Indian family, he began playing instruments around the house, learning by ear and watching his parents perform at concerts. His urge to compose music early in life paralleled his desire to create visual environments. Producing drawings and paintings was a way to manifest and inhabit his visions to which music had played as an ongoing soundtrack.Both Vora's music and art have been strongly influenced by his bicultural upbringing as well as the surrounding rural American landscapes of his childhood.
His paintings have been presented in numerous national and international exhibitions including. In Flux, at the Museum of Northern California Art as well as, Personal Structures, in Venice, Italy in conjunction with the 2019 Venice Biennale. He is a recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant, and was awarded the Herz Recreation Center Public Art Project through the San Francisco Arts Commission which will be completed in the Spring of 2025. He has been commissioned by Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program as well as Square, Inc. for large-scale public installations, and his paintings are in many collections including the public collections of Kaiser Permanente, the Rainin Foundation, and Alta Bates Hospital.
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Sanjay Vora | The Visiting
14 Nov - 28 Dec 2024Born from the distant echoes of an upbringing seeped in Indian Classical music, my paintings become layered, experiential constructions that are ultimately a collective reckoning with our mortality. As both...Read more -
Sanjay Vora | Be/Coming
1 - 30 Apr 2023Born of reflection, Sanjay Vora’s pieces become visual experiences, coming to terms with the command and inevitability of time. Brought up in a suburban American home seeped in East Indian...Read more
Education
2005 MFA in Painting, San Francisco Art Institute
2002 BS in Architecture, University of Virginia
Solo Exhibitions
2024 The Visiting, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 Be/coming, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022 Path to Paradise, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2018 Together and Apart, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
2015 Lost Love, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
2014 Memories of Dreams, Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur CA
2013 Re/Surfaces, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
2010 Rhythmic Sequences, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
Recurring Vision, Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA
2008 Imprint, Vessel, Berkeley, CA
Reflection, Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA
2006 House|Home, Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA
The Surrounding Landscape, Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA
2005 Love, Memory and Nostalgia, Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA 2004 Three Paintings, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco
Field, Memory, and In Between, Mudhouse, Charlottesville, VA
2003 Love and a Video Store, Sneak Reviews, Charlottesville
Mindscape Paintings and Drawings, Gallery Neo, Charlottesville
2001 The Ghost in the Garden, Newcomb Hall Gallery, Charlottesville
Group Exhibitions
2020 Carried Places, Harrington Gallery, Pleasanton, CA
2019 Personal Structures, Palazzo Mora, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Stillness Within, Arkitektura Assembly, San Francisco, CA
Material Matters, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2018 Material Matters, Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2017 Excuse Me, Can I See Your ID? Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
2015 Notions of Romance, Vessel Gallery, Oakland
2014 Material and Meditation, Vessel Gallery, Oakland
Shades of Summer, Vessel Gallery, Oakland
2013 Vessel as the Human Form, Vessel Gallery, Oakland
Landscapes: Near and Afar, Vessel Gallery, Oakland
2012 Horizons of Promise, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
Vessel 8: Charting the Waters, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
Faculty Show, Department of Art Practice, Worth Ryder Gallery, University of California at Berkeley
2011 Portraits, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
Fall Faculty Show, Worth Ryder Gallery, University of California at Berkeley Winter Group Show, Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA
2010 San Francisco International Art Fair, Herbst Pavilion, SF, CA
2007 Square Foot Show, Art Gotham Gallery, New York, NY
Home, Root Division, San Francisco
2006 Choice Art, The Garage, San Francisco
2006 Artwallah, Bamboo Lane Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Artwallah, South Asian Arts Festival, Los Angeles, CA
2006 Arts On Fire X, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
2005 2nd Biennial International Juried Exhibition, the Presidio, San Francisco New California Masters, Works San Jose, CA
2005 Prevue, Starpin Gallery, Shelton, CT
2005 SFAI MFA Exhibition, Herbst Pavilion, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
2005 Haunted, Crucible Steel Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Awards and Residencies
2022 Selected Artist, Hertz Recreation Center Public Art project, San Francisco Arts Commission
2020 Facebook Artist in Residence, Fremont, CA
2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant
2005 Best In Show, 2nd Biennial International Juried Exhibition, Juror: Marian Parmenter
2004 – 2005 Merit Scholarship, San Francisco Art Institute
2004 – 2005 Graduate Teaching Assistantships, San Francisco Art Institute
2003 - 2005 San Francisco Art Institute Grant, San Francisco Art Institute
Bibliography
Morris, Barbara. “Critic’s picks: San Francisco”, Art Ltd. Magazine, Feb 2017
Frank, Priscilla, “Dismantling Stereotypes About Asian-American Identity Through Art”, Huffington Post, Apr 2017.
Burke, Sarah. “An Expanded Approach to Asian Americaness at Vessel Gallery.” KQED.org. Apr 13th, 2017.
Nelson, Lauren. “What Lies Beneath: Uncovering Artwork, One Layer At A Time.” SF Chronicle, Sunday May 30th, 2014.”
Public Collections:
Square Oakland, Facebook, Kaiser Permanente, Rainin Foundation
