Brushstrokes of heritage and memory in Indian-American artist Joya Mukerjee Logue’s work

A haveli can be a continuum of heritage, a receptacle of experiences, memories and stories passed down generations. In Indian-American artist Joya Mukerjee Logue’s 30 oil and watercolour paintings — a part of ‘those who walk before me’, her first solo exhibition in India, on view at Vadehra Art Gallery in New Delhi till September 17 — there’s a sense of entering a time capsule. But this is not the nostalgic artefact one might expect. Instead, it’s a vibrant living space, where history is interlaced with identity and memory.

The paintings have a common muse: Rajo Villa, her paternal ancestral home in Ambala, Haryana, where she spent most of her time as a child during her visits to India. Her ancestors migrated from Behala, now a suburb of Kolkata, to Ambala in 1845 to help build a cantonment for the colonial rulers.

Her work captures the architectural splendour (pillars, arches, courtyards and terraces) of Rajo Villa and the people inhabiting its space, including mostly women in saris — their folds alive against the stillness of the stone, fluttering like echoes of lives lived within its walls.

Mukerjee’s works blend personal and collective memory, evoking both her heritage and the diasporic experience that has defined her artistic journey. Born to an Indian father and an American mother, and raised in Ohio, United States, she navigates the complexities of dual identity with a fluidity that mirrors her art. “I paint what I see and what I experience,” she explains.

Her paintings do not present a romanticised version of her heritage. Instead, they are rooted in lived realities that span both the US and India. “The memory I paint could be from my current yearly visit as an adult, my childhood, or my father’s childhood,” Mukerjee adds, underscoring the intimate, multigenerational connection she explores in her work.

At the heart of her practice is the notion that heritage is both inherited and is continuously shaped by the present. “This is about more than honouring the past,” she says, reflecting on her paintings as a means of connecting to her ancestral home and, by extension, her roots. It’s a dialogue between time periods, where history isn’t antiquity but something that informs the now. “Cultural heritage is part of any person’s entity. Why not celebrate that, whether it’s in India or somewhere else?” asks the Cincinnati-based artist.

Mukerjee’s work challenges assumptions about how heritage is depicted in art, often resisting our urge to romanticise the past. “If my painting reflects something the viewer sees as romanticising heritage, then it is the viewer who needs to reconcile why,” she asserts.

Her pieces often bring forth a profound sense of rootedness, but they also carry the tension of displacement, a duality that echoes her own condition. Though she has lived in the US, her connection to India is unbroken. “I don’t see a dislocation. I’ve always felt at home in India,” she explains, underlining that her work draws upon the visual language she encounters on her frequent trips to the country.

The sense of dual belonging is at the core of Mukerjee’s exploration of identity. For nearly two centuries, Rajo Villa has witnessed five generations of her family and continues to be a site of emotional resonance. “It’s my history,” she reflects. “As a family, we are trying to preserve the home, as it’s in need of repair and restoration. I think it’s a personal preference whether one values old heritage sites, but for me, it’s a connection to my roots.”

Mukerjee’s paintings do not merely document the physical aspects of her ancestral home, but also foreshadow the emotional and psychological connections that define our relationship with the past. In doing so, they challenge the viewer to consider their own cultural inheritances and the stories that tie them to previous generations. “What better way to feel a part of one’s roots than to connect further with memory and stories of our ancestors?” she muses.

Her art is a form of reclamation, a way of preserving not just physical spaces and cultural memory, but the emotional and psychological threads that tie us to our histories. Her paintings are visual testaments to the stories that have shaped her and continue to shape her. “Knowing more about one’s personal history and community adds value to our identity,” she says.

Mukerjee’s works also speak to broader questions of continuity and change. In her paintings, she draws on the realities of being both Indian and American, her heritage woven into her identity in ways that are at once fluid and grounded. This fluidity is reflected in her brushwork and palette, where earthy tones evoke a sense of home, while the flowing strokes suggest the constant negotiation between belonging and dislocation.

“The US is a country full of immigrants, and we all have roots in other lands, whether we chose to immigrate or were forced to,” Mukerjee notes, adding that her “art finds itself through this lens — a contemporary view of belonging and continuity that seeks to connect cultures across the world”.

This sense of belonging is not static for Mukerjee; it evolves, enriched by new encounters with other cultures. Her art becomes a bridge, connecting her personal heritage to larger conversations about identity and belonging. “We no longer live in isolation. The more we connect with other cultures and communities, whether a part of our own personal history or not, the greater the impact in forming an empathetic global family,” she suggests.

In this way, her work transcends geographic and cultural boundaries, offering a perspective on heritage that is dynamic, inclusive, and ever-changing. The past, she suggests, is not something to be discarded but something to be woven into the present.

Thus, in her paintings, Mukerjee offers a nuanced perspective on what it means to belong, preserve, and remember. She invites us to walk with her through the landscapes in which the haveli’s walls hum stories too rich for language to hold, too layered for words to capture fully. They drive home the point that we are all part of a larger story, shaped by those who walked before us and evolving with those who come after us.