Born in New Delhi in 1968, Chandrika Marla studied Fashion Design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology before immigrating to the United States. After a successful career in fashion, she committed to painting full time, developing a practice rooted in abstraction to explore emotional and psychological space.

"My work explores female identity and the place of women in society. I am inspired by women, by their relationships with others, and by the often complex relationships they have with themselves. Having worked for many years in fashion, I continue to express my ideas through depictions of the female torso—a form that, to me, evokes the fragmented roles and expectations that women navigate in their desire to 'have it all.'

Each painting is constructed through the accumulation and removal of layers: I paint, scrape, scratch, and reapply. The blurred lines and shifting forms reflect the negotiation of boundaries and the search for clarity. I often incorporate paper or fabric to help resolve shape and structure. I have always been drawn to Henri Matisse, who said, 'What interested me in painting was a clarification of my ideas.' My work, too, is an ongoing process of clarification—of identity, memory, and presence."

Marla’s work has been exhibited across the United States, including at the de Young Museum, San Francisco; Queens Museum of Art, New York; Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia; and the Rockford Art Museum, Illinois.