Sharmistha Ray

Sharmistha Ray is the Estella Loomis McCandless Assistant Professor of Art at the School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University. Their interdisciplinary practice explores queer identity, immigration, and cultural abstraction through painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, curation, and pedagogy. Ray holds a BA from Williams College and dual degrees (MFA in Painting and MS in Art Theory/Criticism) from Pratt Institute.

Research & Practice: Ray’s work interrogates multicultural inheritances via abstraction, blending Western and non-Western frameworks. Collaborative projects include co-founding the feminist art collective Hilma’s Ghost, which focuses on research-driven artistic production and pedagogy. Exhibitions span global venues like The Armory Show (NY), India Art Fair (Delhi), and Mexico City’s Gallery RGR.

Awards & Grants:

• Montblanc Young Artist Worldwide Patronage Award
• TED Fellowship
• Joan Mitchell MFA Grant

Teaching & Leadership: Previously taught at Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and CMU’s MFA program. Engages in community-driven initiatives through workshops and lectures on magic, mysticism, and identity.

Notable Work: Featured in Cosmic Earth No. 5/7 (2018), combining automatic writing with layered abstraction. Active in curatorial and critical writing, furthering dialogues on intersectional art practices.