Rakhee Jain Desai (b. Mississauga, Canada) is a multidisciplinary artist working in textile/fiber, painting, sculpture and installation. Rakhee's South Asian identity informs both her subject matter and techniques with a particular focus on immigrant identity, belonging and place.
Rakhee has exhibited in the USA, Singapore and Portugal. She was selected as a featured artist for the Imago Mundi Benetton Foundation - representing Singapore’s contemporary art in the 21st Century & Beyond. She was the first cohort recipient of the Tempo2D program by the City of Austin Art in Public Places. The Batik mural named ‘A Place To Call Home’ is now on permanent view at the Austin Bergstrom International Airport. Rakhee is also a recent alum of The Contemporary Austin’s Crit Group program.
As a part of the Red Thread Collective, Rakhee has been commissioned by the City of Houston to create ‘‘Folding Stories’ suspended sculptures that celebrate the history and multicultural diversity of Alief, a neighborhood in Southwest Houston.
Community engagement and the preservation of craft are also integral to Rakhee’s practice. She often integrates ethnic craft methods such as Batik, a wax resist technique from Indonesia. She sees ancient craft methods as a way of storytelling - a snippet from the past carried into the present. And further, she views combining modern materials, both soft and hard as an apt way to weave the memories of the past with the hopes for the future.
Follow the process on Instagram: @RJDartist.
