Udita Upadhyaya's initiation into creative expression was at the Mahindra United World College of India. Studying International Baccalaurate Art as a teenager was the first time she was no longer asked to reproduce what was on the blackboard. Suddenly, having been given agency over the images she created and how or if she chose to color them in, she was stumped and freed at the same time. In the way that awareness of being inside of a cage does not guarantee a desire to escape, her first few sketches remained of what she had seen on previous blackboards and in old art books. Before long this freedom of expression and a climate of creative support released the untapped intangible narratives that resided in her body. She still employs this manner of working, her process requests that she allow narratives to emerge in her physical body and that she journey with them to their end.
Her work as an artist and educator is driven by this memory of an unlocked creative cage. She hopes to recreate and share the same spirit of internal inquiry and instill this same value for diverse creative truths.
She has taught at the Shishuvan School, select Teach for India Schools, underpriviledged and at-risk communities in Mumbai. She is currently a Instructor in Adult Continuing Education at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Teaching Artist at the Hyde Park Art Center. She has also worked as an assistant artist for Family Days at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
For teaching statement or other inquiries contact her on udita.upadhyaya@gmail.com