Sharmistha Ray

Sharmistha Ray (they/them) is a Pittsburgh-based visual artist and Estella Loomis McCandless Assistant Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. Their artistic practice delves into the complex inheritance of multiple cultures through their queer identity and modes of historical and contemporary abstraction. Working primarily in painting and drawing, they have also made work in sculpture, installation and electronic media, and curated projects. In addition to their solo work, they co-founded the feminist art collective Hilma’s Ghost which acts as a collaborative model for research, artistic production, pedagogy, and community.

Ray and the collective’s work have been featured in solo and group exhibitions and projects internationally at The Guggenheim, New York, NY; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY; Galería RGR, Mexico City; Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT; Secrist|Beach, Chicago, IL; The Shepherd, Detroit, MI; The Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Pen + Brush, New York, NY; Kent State University, Kent, OH; Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens, NY; The Parallax Center, Portland, OR; The Armory Show, New York, NY; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY; and many others. In April 2025, Hilma’s Ghost unveiled Abstract Futures, a 600 sq. ft glass mosaic mural at Grand Central Station, New York, NY commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Ray received a dual degree MFA in Painting and MS in Theory, Criticism and History of Art, Design and Architecture from Pratt Institute and BA from Williams College.

Photo courtesy of the artist