Guided by her material choices and formal subjects, Kaveri Raina (b. 1990; New Delhi, India, lives and works in Brooklyn, New York) establishes parameters for moments of confluence and resistance throughout her practice. Her abstract compositions, derived from reoccurring forms that she creates while drawing, emerge as triumphant and monumental. Applying graphite to paper with great pressure and repetition, she builds dense vessel-like forms and abstract figures, which she refers to as “image inventions.” She carries these shapes and drawing materials into her paintings on rough, unprimed burlap surfaces through and over which her mediums glimmer and hover.
Kaveri Raina holds a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD) and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL). She also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Skowhegan, ME). Raina lives and works in Brooklyn, New York
Select solo and group exhibitions include Works on Paper, Casey Kaplan, New York (2025); Master Class, Secrist | Beach, Chicago (2025); Witness, LaForce, New York, NY (2025); reflection as witness, Casey Kaplan, New York (2024); Gravity Model, Cooper Cole, Toronto (2024); Intimate Landscapes, The Orange Advisory, Minneapolis (2024); Songs of silence, yet bluebirds hum, PATRON, Chicago (2023); Kaveri Raina and Coral Saucedo Lomelí: What Do You Remember About the Earth, Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island (2023); A soft place to land, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2023); Deep! Down! Inside! Hales Gallery, New York (2023); image as a burden, death as a womb, Chapter NY, New York (2022); Heft, PATRON, Chicago (2022); A Space for Monsters, Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia (2021); E/MERGE: Art of the Indian Diaspora, Nation Indo-America Museum, Lombard (2021); Partings, Swaying to the Moon, PATRON Gallery, Chicago (2020); NO LACKS, ME AND MY SHADOW, M+B Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); Hildur Jonsson, Abattoir Gallery, Cleveland (2020); Linger to Gaze, Annarumma Gallery, Naples (2019); Linger Still, Assembly Room, New York (2019); Here or There, Paolo Arao, Rata Projects, New York, NY (2019); spaceless, Deli Gallery, Brooklyn (2019); garcia, raina, shore, tossin, Luhring Augustine, New York (2019); Paint School, Shandaken Projects, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York (2019); In-Betweenness, Acre Residency, LVL3, Chicago (2019); She Persists: A Century of Women Artists in New York, Gracie Mansion Conservancy, New York (2019); Entering a Song, Koenig & Clinton, Brooklyn (2019); Pleasure at a Distance, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine (2018); To Hover, Roots and Culture, Chicago (2018); Life as We Know It: A Storehouse Project, Millersville University, Millersville (2018); The Annual, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago (2018); Painterly Intricacies, Gallery 310, Marietta College, Marietta (2018); The Dangerous Professors, Flatland Gallery, Houston (2018); Gods do Handstands; Spices Simmer, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago (2017); Exchange Between, DemoProject Space, Springfield (2017); Material Significance: The Density of Flowers, Comfort Station, Chicago (2017); Nandi, The Condo Association, Chicago (2017); Automythography, Anastasia Tinari Projects, Chicago (2017); K.R.F., Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago (2017); Will I Be Missed I, Kent State University, Stark (2016); Will I Be Missed, Hammond Harkins Gallery, Columbus (2016); Not Just Another Pretty Face, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago (2016); We’ve Met Before, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago (2016); Girlband, The Lorna Room, Chicago (2016); Xenophilia, Fulton Street Collective, Chicago (2016); Cosmos Pornography and the Flickering Fiction of Place, Art Helix Gallery, Brooklyn (2016); Small Works, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn (2016); Surfaces, Hammond Harkins Gallery, Columbus (2016); Emerging Illinois Artist, Triennial Juried Exhibition (2016); Survivalists, Studio 213, Mana Contemporary, Chicago (2015); Small and Wonderful, Hammond Harkins Gallery, Columbus (2015); Hidden Process, Open Center for the Arts, Chicago (2015); Ornate Activate, Shirin Gallery, South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, New York (2015); Moveable Feast, Hammond Harkins Gallery, Columbus (2015); Small Wonders, Hammond Harkins Gallery, Columbus (2015); School of Art, Urban Edge Art Space, Waukegan (2014); Unstable Artifacts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2014); Origins of Abstraction, Carnegie Gallery, Columbus (2014); Greater Columbus, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus (2014); You Call that Art?, Columbus Cultural Arts Center, Columbus (2013); Her Stories, Taubman Museum, South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, Roanoke (2013); Stories to Tell, Roy G Biv Gallery, Columbus (2013); Journey to the Center of Infinite: New Delhi – Ohio, Gateway Gallery II, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore (2012); South Asian Women’s Creative Collective 15th Anniversary: Her Stories, Queens Museum of Art, Queens (2012); 6X6X2012, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester (2012), among others.