Strokes of genius

Through an oeuvre that reflects the innate love she feels for her Indian roots, painter Joya Mukerjee Logue proves that home is where the art is.

- SADAF SHAIKH

To watch Joya Mukerjee Logue at work is like stumbling upon one of those painting-within-a-painting scenes: her canvasses reveal a coterie of women, usually garbed in saris in muted hues, congregating over a meal, a conversation or a beachside jaunt. Every so often, a solitary figure breaks away from the cluster to retreat into her own ruminations. Seated in front of the easel, Mukerjee Logue regards her progress, tucks a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear and arranges the folds of her pastel sari meticulously, looking like she stepped out of the very same canvas she was working on just moments ago.

Born in Ohio Country to an Indian father and an American mother, an impressionable Mukerjee Logue became curious about art at a young age, having spent countless hours watching her maternal grandfather paint, and learning and imbibing along the way. Inspired by childhood travels to her family’s ancestral home in Haryana, christened Rajo Villa, which also doubles as her Instagram handle, she soon found the archival materials and photographs taken by her father trickling into her early artistic endeavours, slowly but surely defining the themes of home and heritage that now drive her practice. Although expected to follow in the family tradition of becoming a doctor, Mukerjee Logue continued to paint in parallel to working other jobs before finally committing to a full-time career in art.