Deshna Mehta
- Co-founder + designer
- India
- Member since 2016
Deshna Mehta is a visual artist with a passion for photography, design, writing and
curation. A graduate of Sir J.J Institute of Applied Art, followed by a masters in
Graphic design from the London College of Communication and a masters in Visual
Communication from the Royal College of Art in London, she moved back to India
seeking to find meaning within her own design practice. This led to the inception of
Studio Anugraha (http://studioanugraha.com/) that serves as a platform to encourage
and undertake collaborative practices in the field of visual art, design and research. It
derives from and contributes to elusive aspects of cultures, philosophies and ideas in
general. By experimenting with and incorporating patterns and paradigms to express
the intangible, it weaves a dynamic fabric of awareness leaving insiders and
onlookers with a sense of connect.
'At Anugraha, we’d be delighted to work on anything apart from luxury brands and things that promote consumerism in general.' Our focus therefore tends to be on the educational, social, cultural, environmental and medical sectors.
Deshna anchors the Kumbh Mela project documentation and design, working alongside a large team of people engaged in the initiative.(http://thekumbhmelaexperience.com/)
She, along with her team have documented the Kumbh of Allahabad 2013, Nashik-
Trimabkeshwar 2015 and Ujjain 2016. The engagement spans field work,
photography, content structures, writing, editorial roles, book design, production and
publishing. This endeavour, backed by patrons has led to an 8 volume compendium
on the Allahabad Kumbh along with a 55 minute documentary that has been
published. The Nashik and Ujjain documentation is soon to be published in the form
of books and a documentary that her studio has been working on for the past couple
of years. Her team has had the opportunity to exhibit this body of work at various
exhibits of the likes of the Goa International Photo Festival (2015),an official launch
at The Nehru Centre, Mumbai (2015), a part of a pavilion at The 15th
Venice Architecture Biennale (2016), part of a group show at NGMA Mumbai (2018).
She was recently invited to represent India and the project at the Bursa Foto Festival
in Turkey (September-October 2018), The World Living Heritage Festival in Udaipur
(November 2018), the Royal College of Art (London – January 2019) and at the Zee
Jaipur Literature Festival (January 2019)
Deshna currently teaches at the National Institute of Design as visiting faculty and
has been a part of other teaching stints and juries at various design institutes in
India. She has been invited to speak on various platforms within the country of the
likes of Typography Day 2014 (Symbiosis School of Design, Pune), Cumulus 2015
(IDC,IIT Mumbai), DDS 2017 (IDC,IIT Mumbai), Insight 2018 (NID, Ahmedabad).
Aside of her interest in research, writing and design, Deshna enjoys exploring
various philosophies and expressing them through installations which have been
exhibited in the UK and in India across various galleries and festivals. She has also
co-curated The Story of Light festival (2015) (http://www.thestoryoflight.org/) and the
co-directed The Story of Space festival (2017) in Goa.
(http://www.thestoryof.org/space2017/)
Contact Deshna.
