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The Sarah Lawrence community mourns the loss of faculty member Kanishka Raja.
Kanishka taught painting and drawing at the College. He arrived at Sarah Lawrence in 2015, after a series of appointments that included a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency, being a Fellow at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy, and an NEA funded residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. Kanishka was intensely interested in ideas of translation, especially across media. His work involved images that were “carried” through various visual representations, from postcard images to paintings (disrupted) to textiles. Describing work exhibited at Sarah Lawrence in October 2017, he said, “Paintings based on found images form the generative anchor for works that, via processes of repetition, doubling, and inversion, undergo interpretive transformations in the hands of multiple craftsmen and collaborators and are then returned to the studio to be sutured together into notions of provisional wholeness.”
In his three years at the College, Kanishka took the time and care to make significant connections with students and faculty. Colleagues have described him as a “wise and powerful teacher,” one who found a way to help students grow by being completely honest and yet deeply empathetic about their work. As for myself, I will not forget the rollicking lunchtime conversations about art, music, shirts—you name it. Kanishka was a fierce and vibrant presence on campus who will be sorely missed.
Kanwal Singh
Provost and Dean of Faculty
Memorial service information:
October 7, 2018
8 p.m.Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
Please RSVP to postwestraja@gmail.com