Jason Thomas (India)

Born in 1996 New Delhi, Jason was always a quiet kid. After eight years of studying in Don Bosco School in Delhi, Jason moved to his father who relocated to Bahrain, a country in the middle-east. This was an emotionally impactful transition in his life. In Bahrain, Jason underwent strict upbringing and developed a push against constantly being told what to do. Luckily, he was provided the resources to fuel his constantly curious nature. He picked up the guitar by watching videos on the internet and got really carried away with doodling. He spent excessive amounts of time indulging in creative expression.

After high school, Jason applied for further education in product design at DSK, Pune. After completing two years of the course he decided to not continue the remaining three years and use some of that tuition money to travel around the diverse country that India is. He backpacked around the country at the age of 18 for two years living on a tiny budget. While traveling he continued to create works in the form of pen sketches and videos. Some of his travel destinations included remote towns in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal and Auroville as well. The two years of travel really helped Jason find a visual aesthetic in his drawings. He started to believe in his artwork and decided to do a Diploma in Fine Art majoring in Drawing at NAFA, an art school in Singapore. The school helped him further shape his practice and inspired him to experiment. In his time in Singapore, he worked as a Digital Marketing Intern, an Art Gallery Assistant and an Art Educator at a private art studio.

Open Studio: “MIND SPACE” , 29th July

Maya Jasmine Gurung-Russell Campbell (UK)
Residency time: July-August

London-based multimedia artist Maya Campbell draws inspiration from her mixed cultural heritage, femininity, nature and explores the experience of the ‘Other’ in contemporary society. Synthesizing poetry, sound, photography and moving image into a form of ritual through performance, Sonics and imagery combine to create an immersive visual tapestry that responds to ancient Nepali and Caribbean folklore tradition.

Her work is playfully ambiguous and fluid, allowing many meanings to be formed and withholding any kind of ‘absolute’ judgment whilst retaining formative experiences at the core of her creative practice – drawing from the longstanding tradition of oral history, stories from my grandma when I was young, narrative mythology and histories not always found in books.