Maharaj was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1976 and works between Colorado, New York City and Trinidad. Ms. Maharaj attended the University of Colorado, Boulder where she earned her BFA in 2015 and her MFA at The School Of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2017. She has received numerous awards including Martha Kate Thomas Fund, the Presidential Scholarship at Anderson Ranch Center and the Barbara De Genevieve Scholarship. Her works are in institutional collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Joan Flasch artist book collection, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, special collections at the University of Colorado, Boulder as well as numerous private collections.
Her work has been recognized with awards including fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Fountainhead Residency, Virginia Center For Creative Arts and Ankhlave Garden Project as well as The Golden Art Foundation and the McColl Art Center Residency in North Carolina. She will also be attending a year long residency at Project For Empty Spaces in Newark, New Jersey in 2022. Most recently, her work has been published in the second volume of Coolitude co-authored by Khal Thorabully and Marina Carter, an amazing volume of stories, poems and visual art which addresses Indian indentureship.
Ms. Maharaj will be installing her first public work in the summer of 2021 at the Queens
Botanical Gardens in NY which will also include an indoor exhibition in 2022. She is also
preparing for a solo in Denver that year as well.
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Being a descendant of indentured laborers from Trinidad and Tobago, has been a driving force in why I produce the work I do. I wish to give a voice to the voiceless and in the process bring attention to a time in history that seems to be forgotten. Working with photography, installations, research and travel, my work which is often autobiographical, investigates themes of history, memory, religion, gender and how they inform identity.