Alyssa Pheobus Mumtaz
Artist-in-Residence, Exhibiting Artist, Makers Series Featured Artist
Alyssa Pheobus Mumtaz is best known for her interdisciplinary drawing practice, which incorporates aspects of collage, hand papermaking, silverpoint, miniature painting technique and textile design.
Since 2010, her work has been strongly influenced by her extensive travels and a growing interest in what it means to be contemplative in today’s world. Rather than viewing the contemplative impulse as a passive withdrawal, her work upholds that it is, in fact, a meaningful and active vocation. She is also deeply interested in the contemplative dimension of craft, a subject that has become the focus of her independent research into traditional art and craft forms ranging from weaving to Indian miniature painting.
She holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She has exhibited her work internationally, including solo projects at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2014); Tracy Williams, LTD, New York (2014, 2012, 2009); La Caja Blanca, Palma (2012) and Bellwether, New York (2009). She has also been the recipient of numerous awards, including grants and fellowships from the Lighton International Artist Exchange Program (2015), the Mid Atlantic Art Foundation (2014), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2009) and the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies (2006-8).
Many of her recent projects have developed through participation in artist residencies at the Millay Colony (2015), The Cill Rialaig Project (2015), the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2014), the Santa Fe Art Institute (2013, 2011), the Ucross Foundation (2010) and Dieu Donné (2008-9). She has taught in university art programs in New York, Pakistan and Washington, DC and is currently based at the University of Virginia.
Bio courtesy of the artist.
