Spandita Malik: Jāḷī—Meshes of Resistance

April 3 - May 10, 2025
PRESS RELEASE

“A quiet legacy passes between women through embroidery and handcraft—an inherited resistance. With each stitch, they inscribe their strength and stories, defying the oppressor in thread.” —Spandita Malik

Robert Mann Gallery is pleased to present Spandita Malik’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery: Jāḷī—Meshes of Resistance, on view from April 3 - May 10, 2025.  

Malik, a visual artist from India, lives in New York and spends extended periods of time in India collaborating with a network of women she has formed with the help of several not-for-profit organizations. These organizations support women who are survivors of domestic and gender based violence. Through these organizations, women learn intricate embroidery skills, skills that will help them move towards financial independence. The portraits are made by Malik in the women’s homes, the subject is portrayed as they wish, some covering their faces, some directly gazing at the camera. The photographs are then transferred to Khadi: a hand-spun cloth made from natural fibers including cotton, and sometimes wool and silk. The khadi fabric itself differs from state to state, region to region, and each picture is transferred to khadi that is made local to where the photograph is taken.

The powerful images depicted in this exhibition are a collaboration between artist and sitter. Malik asks the sitter to embroider their portrait, an invitation for the subject to have power over how they are perceived, to assert control over their own image. Focusing on women’s rights and the impact of violence against women, Malik’s poignant work was born in response to the government’s lack of action against cases of rape which made Malik acutely aware of how much these acts of violence have become the norm within the culture.

These women’s stories are stitched into the fibers of the cloth, and once complete, the works travel thousands of miles arriving to Malik emboldened with emotion, stories, community and strength. The craft of creating, a collaborative act of resistance in itself.

“The quiet meditative act of embroidery connects the community into a network with everyone actively taking part. Women mending things. Women holding each other. Each portrait is unique and so specific to each woman but together they form a quilt of interconnectedness, through each of their distinctions rises the relatable human story.” —Sarah Walko

Born in India in 1995, Malik has a Bachelor of Design in Fashion from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, India and a Masters of Fine Art in Photography from The Parsons School of Design, New York.  Malik’s work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions at The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Portland, OR and Baxter Street Camera Club, New York, NY among other locations.

View the exhibition in person and online starting April 3, 2025. Public visiting hours are Tuesday - Friday, 10am - 4pm, and appointments for private presentations can be scheduled in advance. For additional information and press materials, please contact the gallery by email (mail@robertmann.com).