Megan Abigail Nugroho

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Ancestral Offerings, 2020

woodcut and screenprint on Rives BFK paper, 30 x 44 inches
edition unique

Tell us about the work that you have submitted.
Ancestral Offerings views ideas of rituals and offerings by contextualizing the culture and narratives that I grew up with. The abstraction of beauty and collections of photographs all collaged using printing techniques become central in telling the narrative. I wanted to explore ways that people memorialize and pay tribute to ancestors. Therefore, this work rethinks the role of art as an offering towards ancestors. It is the beautification of tribute, love, and culture through image-making.

How would you describe your studio practice?
I see my studio practice as constantly evolving; however, I find a lot of importance in searching for narratives. Recently, that has involved digging through family archives as source material for the narratives. I also place urgency in concepts of identity, from my identity as a Chinese Indonesian growing up until the present, to my identity as an artist and the identity of my work itself. The constant reminders and exploration around this notion of identity fuels my studio practice and results in the works I produce.

What themes regularly resurface in your work?
Themes that regularly resurface reflect my studio practice which focuses on ideas about identity. That is where it always starts. Dissecting my identity propagates steps to creating my work. From there, I find myself exploring family concepts and narratives that imbue a self-reflective view of my personal identity.

Website: www.nugrohomegan.com
Instagram: @megan_nugroho