King’s Court 2025 Acrylic on canvas 36 inches x 36 inches
This hand-painted piece features paisleys inspired by the Charbagh Mughal gardens, exploring how architectural and design motifs transcend borders, making their origins indeterminate. While archaeologists speculate that the paisley originated in Central or South Asia, it has become a global symbol, detached from any singular source. Similarly, the Charbagh, a widely embraced landscaping element, appears in French, English, and American gardens. Engaging with Foucault’s critique of pure origins, this painting resists ancestral attribution, instead emphasizing the fluidity of meaning. A Texas farmer may see the paisley as the red bandana of a rancher, while a South Asian might connect it to henna designs. To a 1960s European traveler, it evokes the psychedelic movement. Through this shifting lens, the work highlights how cultural and racial backgrounds shape perception, reinforcing that certain designs do not belong to a single heritage.
A video documenting a memory game in which a player tries to match patterns, symbolizing the search for a partner or “other half.” Inspired by the story of the Ardabil Carpets, twin Persian rugs from the 16th century that remained side by side for centuries before being separated, with one now housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the other at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The video incorporates excerpts from various philosophical texts about the search for the perfect partner, but key components of the text are deliberately omitted, mirroring how the full history of the two rugs was obscured and certain details excluded so that various state and private entities could control the narrative.
The Ardabil Carpets, twin Persian rugs from the 16th century, were created for the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili in Iran. By the late 19th century, both the shrine and the carpets had deteriorated. To fund repairs, local custodians sold the rugs, which were eventually acquired by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).
At the V&A, one carpet was restored using fragments from its twin, erasing their paired existence to fabricate the illusion of a singular, “authentic” artifact. By concealing restoration efforts, museums acted as instruments of soft power, presenting Iran as a mystical land of wisdom, ripe for exploration and exploitation.The fate of the fragmented twin’s history resurfaced in 2011, tied to covert agreements. Now at LACMA, its remains reveal how cultural objects, often dismissed as decorative, are manipulated to sustain power structures. The story of the Carpets illustrates how art curation frequently sanitizes ornamental art as cultural heritage to fit ideological agendas.
Monozygotic 2025 Fiber 10 inch x 18 inchSyngraft 2025 Fiber 10 inch x 18 inchTTTS 2025 Fiber 10 inch x 18 inch
The Portal, 2024, 5ft x 4ft, Acrylic on canvas and drywall, painting opens like a door. Opening reception for ‘Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis’ on Thursday, October 17, 2024, at Asia Society Texas. Photo by Chris Dunn.
Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis assembles the work of contemporary artists who explore the mysteries and wonders of outer space. Featuring over 30 artists, this exhibition travels through art, science, and human curiosity, inviting visitors to embark on an imaginative journey through the cosmos. As NASA aims to return to the Moon, this exhibition surveys how artists today are investigating some of the most profound questions about the universe in the city where that journey began.
President John F. Kennedy, speaking at Houston’s Rice University in 1962, famously launched his campaign to galvanize Americans to support his plan to land on the Moon. Today, NASA is the midst of the Artemis missions, preparing humans to return to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. This represents an opportunity for reevaluating how artists interpret and interface with what lies beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Almost half of the artists in the exhibition are from, or have lived in, Houston, creating an intergenerational, transcultural, and international show that orbits four themes: Origins, Celestial Bodies, Space Technology, and Other Worlds. Across these themes, the Space City artists will ponder the beginnings of the cosmos, how the stars and planets catalyze the creativity of artists, the role technology plays in space exploration, and how artists deploy science fiction to build new worlds.
“Space City” is one of Houston’s many identities, as the sprawling metropolis that houses the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center — the cradle of spaceflight — a key organizer of the Artemis missions. Taking this character of Houston as a point of departure, Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis dovetails with the city’s percolating space fever and share the awe of outer space through the eyes of artists.
Curated by: Owen Duffy
Exhibiting Artists: Michael Bhichitkul, Erika Blumenfeld, John Chae, Angela Chen, Leroy Chiao, JooYoung Choi, James Clar, Nathaniel Donnett, Farima Fooladi, Ian Gerson, Christopher K. Ho, Yifan Jiang, Myeongsoo Kim, Alicja Kwade, Ajay Kurian, Subash Thebe Limbu, Ani Liu, Xin Liu, Ander Mikalson, Ruhee Maknojia, Virginia Lee Montgomery, Trevor Paglen, Daid Puppypaws, Preetika Rajgariah, Toshiko Takaezu, Martha Tuttle, Tomas Vu, Hong Xian, Stella Zhong, Ping Zheng, Alexis Zambrano
The Portal, 2024, 5ft x 4ft, Acrylic on canvas and drywall. Installation view. Painting opens like a door. Exhibition: ‘Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis’ at Asia Society Texas. Photo by Alex Barber.The Portal, 2024, 5ft x 4ft, Acrylic on canvas and drywall. Installation view. Painting opens like a door. Exhibition: ‘Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis’ at Asia Society Texas. Photo by Alex Barber.Blood Moon, 2024, 16in x 20in, Acrylic on canvas Installation view. Exhibition: ‘Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis’ at Asia Society Texas. Photo by Alex Barber.Blood Moon, 2024, 16in x 20in, Acrylic on canvas Installation view. Exhibition: ‘Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis’ at Asia Society Texas. Photo by Alex Barber.
Scheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ft
Launched in 2021 with the goal of fostering cross-campus and community engagement with the arts, the Moody Project Wall is a collaborative effort between a Houston-based artist and Rice University students. The Moody Project Wall series is made possible by the Moody Center for the Arts Founders Circle.
For this iteration of the Moody Project Wall, Ruhee Maknojia has created a painted composition that revisits the iconic tale of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of folk tales from Central and South Asia and the Middle East. The mural prominently features the story’s main character Scheherazade. Married to a king who, wary of women, executes each new spouse after their wedding night, Scheherazade begins to tell a story that she leaves unfinished every evening, thus saving her life.
In Maknojia’s reinterpretation of the well-known narrative, the protagonist’s story is set in a contemporary context, with television screens inspiring Scheherazade’s new ideas for her continuous narration. Figures from the historic tale climb the wall, appearing behind openings, and the windows and doors become part of the artwork, transforming into TVs. Maknojia draws upon her background in Middle Eastern studies to conceive rich, decorative patterns that speak to the cultural and historic meanings of fabrics and how they connect societies. Driven by the intricate storyline that weaves together oral histories from various places and times, the work explores social structures and our relationship with new media that disseminates information. It also highlights the power of imagination as an essential source for community-building and increasing empathy toward others. Interactive light panels react to the sound of people walking by, making viewers part of Scheherazade’s story.
Rice student and Moody Intern Tessa Domsky ‘25 coordinated the student engagement and workshops, and the following Rice students participated and contributed to the Moody Project Wall: Katherine Arquitt ’26, Nhu Chu ‘28, Norah Cichowksi ’27, saba Feleke ‘25, Sophia Findley ’28, Valentina Hoover ’28, Hongtao Hu ’27, Chloé Khuri ’26, Will Kinnebrew ’26, Millie Peacock ’26, Rhea Ray ‘27, Lajward Zahra ’27, and Ashley Zhang ’27.
Scheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ftScheherazade Meets the Television, 2024, Acrylic on drywall with light panels that respond to sound, 28ft x 48ft
Pattern and Power, first exhibited at Anya Tish Gallery, is a series of paintings that utilize vibrant heritage-based patterns to bridge ordinary moments of modern life with concepts of philosophy, history, and storytelling. This particular collection of paintings associates 10th-16th-century poetic fables with mundane moments from contemporary life. Each painting is adorned with historically significant patterns influenced by Asian and American textile cultures, creating a narrative experience where decorative elements actively participate in the storytelling process.
The paintings delve into the visual possibilities that arise when tales like “The Case of the Animals versus Man” by Ikhwan al-Safa unfold in the present day. It explores possible relationships that can form between literary masterpieces originating from eastern oral traditions and the current visual art space. Traditionally, these fables often contained themes such as caring for nature, questioning social power structures, and combating the dissemination of falsehoods. The oeuvre examines how medieval fables from the continent of Asia continue to convey wisdom that transcends its cultural and geographical origins and remains relevant to this day.
Paisley’s Odyssey 8 minutes and 19 seconds 16:9 aspect ratio
The enchanting tale of “Paisley’s Odyssey” is an exploration of belonging, viewed through the lens of the paisley design. The animation blurs the lines of history from an archaeological perspective with fable, fantasy, and myth.
Paisley is a water creature whose peaceful existence is shattered when the scorching sun tears it apart, forcing it to try and piece itself back together.
Rakhsh, a fearless horse from the literary story of the Shahnameh, strikes a deal with Paisley. He will help Paisley find water and regain its true form, but the catch is a transformation that blurs their memories.
As they journey through lands filled with wonder and enchantment, they pass through the mystical Gate of Agra, deepening their bond, and they transform yet again. Wisdom is found in the form of an elephant, but a twist awaits when they’re mistaken as a decorative object by an officer from a distant land. The visuals subtly hint at the interconnected visual relationships that develop through colonial occupation.
The story reaches its climax with the arrival of a storm, and Paisley’s long-lost mother takes it home. However, the home they return to is not what they remember, leading Paisley to discover its true origin and the ever-changing nature of its existence – it comes from water, and its odyssey is an eternal cycle of transformation and self-discovery.
Fantastical Beast and Ritual 20in x 16in Acrylic on Canvas
Magicalscapes is a series of paintings that utilize vibrant heritage-based patterns to connect ordinary moments of modern life with concepts of philosophy, history, and storytelling. This particular collection of paintings explores mundane moments from contemporary life using Eastern storytelling traditions. Each painting is adorned with historically significant patterns influenced by Asian and American textile cultures, creating a narrative experience where decorative elements actively participate in the storytelling process.
The paintings delve into the visual possibilities that arise when tales like “The Case of the Animals versus Man” by Ikhwân al-Safâ unfold in the present day. It explores possible relationships that can form between literary masterpieces originating from Eastern fables and the current visual art space. Traditionally, these fables often contained themes such as caring for nature, questioning social power structures, and combating the dissemination of falsehoods. This oeuvre examines how medieval fables from the continent of Asia continue to convey wisdom that transcends its cultural and geographical origins.
Atargatis Meets Basilisk 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasConnected 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasDerby 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasEntangled 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasFishing 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasFlight 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasHerding 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasPuppet 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasQuarantine 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasTake Me to the Moon 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasThe Wall 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasWashing 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasWomanhood 20in x 16in Acrylic on Canvas
Majority Rule Exhibited at Sanman Studios in Houston, TX. May 2023
Majority Rule is a group exhibition of artist featuring work from Leticia Bajuyo, Brandon Tho Harris, Kill Joy, Ruhee Maknojia, Anthony Pabillano, Jagdeep Raina, and Sajeela Siddiq curated by Erika Mei Chua Holum at Sanman Studios.
The Exhibition draws on storytelling, myth-making, and survival strategies of South and Southeast Asian artists in Houston to consider forms of connected knowledge in the Global South, such as warm-weather solidarities, humid climates, and tropical futures as a way to preserve and elevate artistic practices located within and along cultural political, and geographic peripheries. Ranging from rapidly dissolving coastlines to tropical paradieses, the artists and communities along seacoasts, archipelagos, and oceanic geographies have sustained and preserved ways of coming together even amidst displacement, diaspora, and migration. Throughout the show, the artworks and activations propose “looking south” as a method of resistance to hegemonic solutions driven by perspectives from the global north.
Locating the estuaries, bayous, and swamplands of Houston as spaces of hybrid climates, biodiversity, and cultural plurality, we look toward majority-initiated survival to imagine a future for ourselves. Majority Rule is an invocation of community- building through a variety of mediums- the exhibition space, the dinner table, the artist workshop, and the conversation
between friends and strangers- as a way to speculate beyond individualism, scarcity, and catastrophe towards conviviality, communality, and connectedness.
Meditation Room 8ft x 6ft x 7ft Acrylic on Canvas, Banarasi Sari, Blue RugEntangled 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasQuarantine 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasFishing 20in x 16in Acrylic on CanvasWomanhood 20in x 16in Acrylic on Canvas
Terrain, 2022 6ft x 8ft [Canvas] on 23ft x 21ft [Wall] Acrylic on Masonite Wood, Canvas, and Drywall
Terrain, first exhibited at Asia Society Texas Center in the summer of 2022 as part of their Artists on Site Residency. The painting considers how heritage based patterns can transcend beyond borders and their spaces of origins to create new landscapes.
Land and Body, 2022 Exhibited at Asia Society Texas Center, August 2022 Artist on Site Series IIIEncounter, 2022 (left) and 1954 U.S.C. Title 4, 2022 (right) Exhibited at Asia Society Texas Center, Artist on Site Series IIISelections from The Dot series.Selections from The Dot series.Selections from The Dot series.
One Flower | One Life Exhibited at Box 13 ArtSpace in Houston, TX. March 2022 24ft x 23ft x 9.5ft
On 11th March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Uncertain how long the pandemic would last or how threatening it would be to American citizens, the artist, Ruhee Maknojia, stamped one red flower for every American life lost to the virus from 11th March 2020 to 31st December 2021. The Stamped flowers symbolically illustrate human fragility. Eventually the data collection process transformed into an art installation titled, “One Flower | One Life”
The installation of parchment paper hanging from the ceiling to floor was first exhibited at Box 13 ArtSpace in Houston, TX. The paper displays flowers for every American life lost to COVID-19 and a date marking the number of individuals who passed on a particular day. The project is here to help viewers grapple with the magnitude of lives lost by visualizing over 900,000 of them as small stamped flowers and what that might mean for those who experience the installation. Due to size constraints of the exhibition space. The installation and following images only show a small fraction of COVID-19 deaths. Viewers are currently looking at those lives lost from 11th March 2020 to 24th July 2020, totaling 137,678 flowers | lives.
Conference of Longitudes is a series of drawings by three artists separated by thousands of miles and multiple time zones. The project seeks to promote a mutual exchange of ideas and cross-cultural understanding through the medium of drawing.
While conducting an exchange of ideas can be challenging during the best of times, the artists collectively decided to use the challenges of life during the time of COVID-19 to collaborate on a project intended to illustrate what a unified global conversation can look like even when individuals are separated by space, time, or self-imposed isolation.
Conference of Longitudes is less about individual drawings by individual artists and more about what can be envisioned and accomplished through a collaborative process in which the individuals must come together, while remaining separated, and adapt to each other’s individual artistic practices.
THE DRAWINGS
Conference of Longitudes began just as the COVID-19 virus attained pandemic status. Due to the variability and unknowability of the times, the artists were unable to meet in person. Instead, each would make drawings that capture their rich experiences and upload them to a shared folder online. The artists would subsequently print each other’s work, respond to them with a new drawing, and reupload as a way to communicate with each other without the constraints imposed by space and time.
Because of the process by which the separate drawings were created, the artists intend for the series to be viewed in sequence. As the viewer moves from one drawing to the next, they will notice a story that begins to unfold in the transitions. Developed over a year in real time through video conference calls, emails, digital messages, and drawings, the story unfolds as the individual creations intertwine, entangle, and mesh with each other to create a common visual language.
STILL TO MOTION
Here the drawings come to life through paper cutouts, a shadow box, light, and motion.
In July 2018, the government of Delhi, India initiated an educational program called “The Happiness Curriculum” to decrease anxiety, depression, and intolerance in students up to grade eight. Inspired by India’s meditation initiative, this art installation, also titled “Happiness Curriculum,” explores the possibilities of meditation in spaces of dysfunction. The project is a four-walled space where viewers are invited to sit inside a dimly lit room surrounded by vibrant paintings. A geometric sound and video projection play over the paintings, bringing life to still images. The paintings on the surface appear vibrant, colorful, and “happy”. The more time the viewer spends in the room, however, the more the video installation projects out a haunting sound and claustrophobic-like pattern. The project questions mental health in the American context by inviting viewers in a university setting to experience comfort and discomfort in one breath.
Installation at Eastern Connecticut State University, CT [20 ft x 17 ft x 11.5 ft] 7 minuets and 55 seconds animation and audio running in a loop, layers of hand painted glassine paper. Paper cut outs with an x-Acto knife, canvas, drop cloth, 31 small wood panels 10 in x 8 in. oil and acrylic paintings, hand knotted Iranian rug, projector.
The Garden is an art installation that is entirely hand-painted and hand-built. The project developed around the aesthetics and philosophies of 16th-century Mughal gardens in India, and utilizes this system of thought to realign social and traditional relations to raise questions about power, ethics, and values in contemporary life. Mughal-style gardens such as those found in present-day India, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan are four-walled intramural spaces. Historically, philosophers wrote about these gardens in binary terms; the interior represented perfection, relaxation, and peace, while the exterior represented dysfunction, distress, and chaos. Presented in the following slides, “The Garden” installation, seeks to carve out illumination and stability in the milieu of chaos by questioning what it means to open the gates between the internal space of serenity and an external world of disorder. The art is continuously shaped and reshaped by the perforation of exoteric problems into an area of esoteric “perfection.” The artist uses painted patterns and repetition to seek beauty in abstract spaces of distress.
The Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts in New York City 24 hour sound of running water, A green light bulb, paper pathways, bells made from tin metal, water fountain built from an old bowl and found water pump in Watson Hall Columbia University, drop cloth, canvas, oil paintings, acrylic paintings, paper cut outs, birchwood, foam boards, and crimson dyed red carpet. 10ft x 12ft x 8ft.
The following slides are a painting installation titled “Visualizing the Tradition of Folklore.” The artwork is 12 ft x 8.8 ft and the installation also contains 16 smaller 10 in x 8 in paintings on top of the backdrop. The exhibition explores the folklore tradition of storytelling and how stories from India can travel across borders and into unexpected neighborhoods such as Harlem, New York. The miniature paintings host imagined characters from Gujrati folklore but are repurposed to an American context.
Exhibition titled Harlem Perspectives II presented at The Faction Art Projects Gallery, Harlem, New York City Twenty-one wood panels sized at 10in x 8in, drop cloth sewn together in three parts, acrylic and oil paint. Full installation 12ft x 8.8ft
