ARTIST STATEMENT
The key themes found in Antra's artistic practice are the elemental and geometric forms found in nature. She is inspired by the macro and the micro of the universe. In her creative work she uses multiple different processes in making sculptural works, including wheel-throwing, hand-building, coiling, slip cast in mold, as well as newer technologies.
BIOGRAPHY
Antra Sinha began discovering the artist within her in 1994, when she joined a painting class in New Delhi. Following this passion, she earned her BFA and MFA degrees in painting from the MS University of Baroda in India in 2002. Antra then became an apprentice to Ray Meeker for ten years at Golden Bridge Pottery(GBP) in Pondicherry, India. During this time, her role at the studio evolved according to the needs of the production and artist studio. She facilitated multiple workshops and taught regularly at the studio. She participated in kiln firings of monumental sculpture and production ware, mostly firing with wood. She has worked with multiple types of kilns, including downdraft, noborigama, and anagama. Her knowledge and experience with kilns deepened when she began to design and build kilns in and around Pondicherry.
An award from The Japan Foundation took her to the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan for six months in 2008. Here, her eyes opened to the wider universe of ceramics. She met artists from numerous other countries and appreciated a wide range of traditional as well as contemporary Japanese ceramic art. Her visits to various museums brought her a deeper understanding of the different aspects of Japanese culture. She trained in the Urasenke Tea ceremony tradition from a Danish Tea Master in Kyoto. At the ceramic institute, she participated in Anagama, Kanayama, Itekoigama firings. Antra also completed a large scale sculpture, which lead to a commission for a 60inch sculpture for hotel in India.
Her signature sculpture, Tetrarc, was purchased by the Hyatt Regency in Chennai, India, in 2009. The sculpture was one of six, and was created for the pool deck area at the GBP studios and installed in 2011.
A trip to Australia enabled her to work at The Tin Shed Pottery in Launceston, and then assist Neil Hoffman in preparation for the pre-conference and WoodFire Tasmania conference in 2011. She experienced a Train kiln firing for the first time during the workshop. At the conference, she gave a presentation, entitled Anagama in South India, about the Golden Bridge Pottery and the first Anagama kiln in India, as well as acted as co-curator and participant in a group show with Indian artists works, called Continental Drift.
Antra continued her stay in Australia for several months working at the studios Qdos and Gooseneck Pottery as assistant to Graeme Wilkie and Robert Barron, respectively. Over the course of this time she enhanced her skills throwing larger vessels on the wheel and participated in the firing of Robert Barron’s 1000-cubic-foot Noborigama kiln. Following this, she was invited for a residency at the Gaya Ceramic Arts Center in Bali, Indonesia.
In 2014 she travelled to Markus Bohm’s studio Muritz Keramik in Germany. Here she helped set up a pre-conference event conducted by Chester Nealie before the 2nd European Wood Fire Conference in Guldagergaard, Denmark. She joined the conference and gave a presentation on her own work: Tetrarc – making a 5 foot sculpture in India. She also participated in Steve Harrison’s unique, Laid Back Wood Firing at Markus Bohm’s studio. Antra was invited to continue exploring and researching in northern Europe at a residency at Zentrum fur Keramik in Berlin.
She furthered her practice by building her own kiln design and opening her ceramic studio, Earth Art, in Pondicherry. This studio was on the same campus of her family’s architectural business, Ovoid Atelier (OA). She was the art curator for a landscape at a community housing called Kalpana , designed by OA, in Auroville, India. She then received a STEM scholarship to pursue another MFA in ceramics at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
At the 50th NCECA conference in Kansas, she made a presentation at Blinc 20/20 and was awarded the MultiCultural Fellow. In 2018, she received the Master’s Student Researcher of the Year Award at the Caine College of the Arts, USU. The year of 2019 took her to Dankook Univeristy in Korea, where she presented a paper entitled Ceramics in South India at the ISCAEE conference. In 2021, she received the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art Teaching Fellowship in Logan, UT.
At the 57th NCECA conference in Cincinnati, she co-organized an exhibition with ten international artists, the exhibition was called RAAKH – A RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Antra also moderated two panels with artists. Nature/Nurture – Community Self and Others was about wood firing community, and its facets. Exploring Cultures – Clay Cooking Vessels showcased traditional pottery ware from Ghana, India and Indigenous USA.
Antra is a member of three ceramic organizations: IAC, ISCAEE, and NCECA. Currently, Antra serves on the NCECA board as On Site Conference Liaison for Salt Lake City. She holds the position of Gallery Coordinator and Art Instructor at the Caine College of the Arts, Utah State University, in Logan UT. She chooses to fire a Train kiln at USU, is interested in sustainable living and is obsessed with weeding her garden.