Nimisha Bhanot

Social Media Monarchy is a series of oil portraits which aim to idolize social media icons within the South Asian diaspora who transgress limitations set by culture, race, sexuality and gender. All individuals in this series have used social media to create a community of acceptance for first/second generation South Asians and have become leaders and change makers within the community. By placing marginalized individuals in oil portraiture I am disrupting the purpose of the portrait as traditionally being reserved for upper class and monarchy. This painting features Alok Vaid-Menon of former poetry duo, Dark Matter Poetry. The title 'Empress of the Runway' pays homage to Alok's daily celebration of transfemme visibility in NYC, almost as if they use their surroundings as a runway. The title also references Winterhalter's 1854 'Empress Eugine' which influenced the composition for this piece. 

Social Media Monarchy is a series of oil portraits which aim to idolize social media icons within the South Asian diaspora who transgress limitations set by culture, race, sexuality and gender. All individuals in this series have used social media to create a community of acceptance for first/second generation South Asians and have become leaders and change makers within the community. By placing marginalized individuals in oil portraiture I am disrupting the purpose of the portrait as traditionally being reserved for upper class and monarchy. Talking Back With The Selfie Gaze features Sanam Sindhi with one hand holding an iPhone and the other hovering over the world while she takes a mirror selfie. The composition is meant to portray her sexual confidence and its global influence via social media after her mainstream exposure in Rihanna's music video for 'B*tch Better Have My Money'. Referencing the title, the composition portrays the 'selfie gaze', allowing the figure to be the producer of the gaze in a intimate/private way in juxtaposition with her online popularity (symbolized by globe).

Social Media Monarchy is a series of oil portraits which aim to idolize social media icons within the South Asian diaspora who transgress limitations set by culture, race, sexuality and gender. All individuals in this series have used social media to create a community of acceptance for first/second generation South Asians and have become leaders and change makers within the community. By placing marginalized individuals in oil portraiture I am disrupting the purpose of the portrait as traditionally being reserved for upper class and monarchy. Bharti And The Cheeseburger (2016) is a portrait of Tanya Rawal, who is a Philosophy professor at California State University Los Angeles and also the face of a project called Saree Not Saree. Saree Not Saree aims to utilize fashion to confront the anti-immigration discourse in the United States. Tanya teaches in a saree at the university to fight assimilation and make her ethnicity a gift to American culture. Bharti and The Cheeseburger depicts a Hindu woman with Indian pride coyly looking at the viewer before eating a forbidden beef burger. The composition takes from pinup culture and Carls Jr commercials to depict a woman using the saree as a tool for change and dissent from a bicultural Indo-North American perspective. This piece also confronts India's (and many South Asian countries') history of equating women to a national identity. The use of "Bharti" similar to "Bharat"(name of india before partition and colonization) is intentionally contrasted against an Americanized portrayal of female patriotic pride to portray tension between expectations of Indian women (traditionally rooted in heteropatriachal nationalism) and the current state of intolerance for dissent in India.

Social Media Monarchy is a series of oil portraits which aim to idolize social media icons within the South Asian diaspora who transgress limitations set by culture, race, sexuality and gender. All individuals in this series have used social media to create a community of acceptance for first/second generation South Asians and have become leaders and change makers within the community. By placing marginalized individuals in oil portraiture I am disrupting the purpose of the portrait as traditionally being reserved for upper class and monarchy. Venus Shraya is a painting of Toronto based author and artist Vivek Shraya in a composition which appropriates Titian's 1583 'Venus of Urbino'. Here Shraya celebrates the God-like beauty of trans women of colour by taking on the pose of a Roman goddess and confidently returning the viewer's gaze. The returning of the gaze in this piece speaks to the lack of representation of trans people of colour in canonical European paintings while also forcing the viewer to reconsider their preconceived notions of femininity, power and beauty.