Bio & Statement:
Anuja Jaitly is a Charlottesville, Virginia-based fiber and mixed-media artist.
Informed by her experiences in social impact work across the U.S., Asia and Africa, she has developed a keen passion for lifting up old-world art, heritage and voices from places near and far. Anuja’s art weaves together the old and the new, and breaks new ground in its portrayal of what we have in common across place and time.
Her work is particularly inspired by the beauty and profundity of what passes from generation to generation, in America and abroad. Be they stories, artifacts or dreams, it's what we hold on to from the past that's at the core of Anuja's work - and the subject of her most current collection: "Heirloom." Embedded in heirlooms are ancient stories, including of Americana; and, as Henry Ford put it, “Every object tells a story if you know how to read it."
While each of Anuja's pieces anchors in a single, traditional heirloom object, it's the added use of fiber and mixed-media art that helps her work transcend place, time - and purpose. Her art is an end in and of itself, yes, but Anuja's commitment to lifting up, and giving currency to, ancient art forms more generally is a parallel mission, too.
Anuja hosts "Art Around the World" workshops for children as well. Cultivating in young people an ability to see their story in the context of those who came before them is the kind of empathy she hopes to advance in Charlottesville and around the world.
