Kuzana Ogg, a Los Alamos, New Mexico artist represented by Gebert Contemporary in Santa Fe and K Contemporary in Denver, creates work governed by the aesthetic principles of balance and restraint.
“The principles that govern my aesthetic are balance and restraint. My early years in India were flooded with noise, color, and fragrance. My grandparents’ home in Bombay was somewhat buffered from the outside chaos of people and cars by lush gardens. This paradise of quietly growing coconut trees, exotic lilies, and always newly turned wet red earth was invaded hourly by squalling parrots and barbarous crows. Their cries filtered through the foliage as though they were the softened echoes of the havoc on the streets. Going anywhere in Bombay requires infinite patience and time.
“Bombay is steeped in perfume—from yards of jasmine and roses garlanding doors, to sandalwood burning at the fire temple, to a hundred different lunches cooking at the same time—there is always fragrance in the air. Its presence everywhere instilled in me the conviction that just as fragrance occupies a stratum deeper than sight or sound, majesty is also hidden beneath the surface of things, and majesty is an anchor that restrains and balances the chaos of experience. It is the primordial root that underlies even the most discordant things. The general pandemonium of Bombay in the early 1970s serves as a visual alphabet. This alphabet continues to recombine through my travels and migrations, developing into a painterly language. In any form of communication, I have found the principles of restraint and balance to be the most formidable and eloquent.”
Kuzana Ogg grew up in India and has lived in the United Kingdom, South Korea, New York, California, and New Mexico. In 2021, Ogg completed a four-year residency at El Zaguán in Santa Fe and moved to Los Alamos. Her work continues to be exhibited, published, and collected privately and publicly, nationally and internationally. Ogg’s work can be seen in two group exhibitions this fall, one opening on September 16 at Gebert Contemporary in Santa Fe and Deep Roots, opening on October 8 at Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Los Alamos, New Mexico | kuzanaogg.com | @kuzanaogg
