"For Marla, feminism is a constant presence in the studio as she works. Like Rothko, she believes that color can serve as an instrument to fulfill a greater purpose. For her, part of that purpose is to celebrate women’s ability to rise above trauma and loss and become what they are truly meant to become." — Maria Porges. 

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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 examine emotional and psychological space.

 

“My paintings are an exploration of the feminine. 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 application of flat layers using a paint roller, alternating between opaque layers and translucent glazes, to create a surface that eventually looks deep and luminous. The sinuous border that separates one color field from another in her compositions is “the place where the dialog happens. The soft line encapsulates the emotions that I felt at a particular time, or how I felt while painting that recollection. But I control what I want to reveal. You are allowed to explore only the part of my memory that I’m willing to share. I’ve concealed the rest of it.”

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