Udita Upadhyaya is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. She is also a researcher of human behavior and consumption. She has worked extensively in western India to understand the evolution and rise of materialism, labor and urban migration in the rural community. She has a dual degree in Filmmaking and International Relations from Boston University, an MBA in Marketing from S.P.Jain Institute for Management and Research, Mumbai. She also has an MFA in studio art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Upadhyaya currently lives and works out of Chicago and Mumbai. Upadhyaya uses her body as a primary material. She works with the principles of Vipassana meditation to uncover the trajectories of desire, craving, trauma, shame and their many intersections. Her artistic explorations include a study of global cultures and an uncovering of personal and collective histories, both ignited by the passion to transcend cultural, social and gender binaries. The work seeks to illuminate those that are relegated to the background by examining subtle coercions that result in conformity and loss of identity. This conflict zone between public and private is the arena for her work: here, she navigates the fertile ground between complicity and rebellion. Upadhyaya’s collaborations and solo work have been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Roger Brown Museum, Chicago Artist’s Month, Links Hall, Manifest Urban Arts’ Festival, Sullivan Galleries and other venues in Chicago, New York, Mumbai, and Prague. To learn more about her practice visit her website: www.uditaupadhyaya.com