Neeli Malik BFA
For any enquiries, please email neelimalik.art@gmail.com
Neeli Malik is a graduate of BFA Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. She specialises in silkscreen and photo-intaglio printmaking. She received training at London Print Studio and studied MA Print at the Royal College of Art (2021-23). In 2021 she was awarded a Burberry Design Scholarship to sponsor her education at the RCA.
Neeli’s practise is primarily concerned with vivid colourations, interweaving stories, human and nonhuman connections, and where we place ourselves in the world.
Her work has been exhibited in various galleries internationally, including the Oxford Museum of Natural History, the 6B Arts Centre (Paris) the An Táin Arts Centre (Ireland) and Southwark Park Galleries (London). She recently received funding from London Borough of Waltham Forest to develop her photography project: ‘100 Days of Groceries’, which was also featured in Printmaking Today magazine. She has also collaborated with the Oxford Art, Biodiversity & Climate Network, and was artist-in-residence at Oxford Ecosystems Lab, where she produced a body of work in relation to their research on woodland restoration.
“My practise is concerned with the idea that anthropocentric decay is exacerbated by a widespread disconnection between humans and our environments. ‘Human exceptionalism’ or ‘Anthropocentrism’ is a mode of thinking that wrongly categorizes humanity as distinctly separate from nature. I want to propose the term ‘emergency intermergences’ - markers of collusions between humans as well as nonhumans in defiance of said separatism, to consciously or unconsciously un-do the isolation of Anthropocentrism:
• inter-
between; among.
mutually; reciprocally
• -merge
‘to ‘immense oneself’; to ‘combine’.
• emerge
become known; come to light
‘Emergency’ indicates that time is of the essence, we need to be present and in the now.
‘Intermergences’ acknowledge that kinship is an essential component in rethinking our place in the ecological composition of earth.
Emergency intermergences respond to our times and reflect our need for survival. Emergency intermergences form new and more sustainable collusions within ourselves, with each other, and with everything. Whether through the connections between people going about their daily lives, or through the organic symbiotic relationships that make up the planet and our earthly bodies: lichenous cityscapes, sprawling mycelium webs, squirming gut bacteria, and glowing coral structures. How can exploring these various forms of ‘emergency intermergences’ help us reimagine a world beyond the Anthropocene era we are living in?
To visually explore these concepts, I used both my own photography and found imagery to compose amalgamations to represent symbiotic organisms (using images of lichen, coral, moss, slime moulds, mycelium). The medium of print, traditionally used for the reproduction of images, begins to mirror cellular reproduction, as I trace the evolution of an image from photography, to drawing, to metal plates, to a myriad of vivid printed variations (intaglio, silkscreen, lithography).
My practise also expands to documenting glimpses of human connections and encounters - I have recently undertaken a project funded by London Borough of Waltham Forest to develop my ongoing photo-documentary project, ‘100 Days of Groceries’, which archives the images and stories of grocery stores as a lens through which to view communities both urban and rural. This project showcases glimpses of human encounters through the stories of the shopkeepers, and acts as a love-letter to our local greengrocers, fruit & veg stands, butchers, deli’s, corner shops and bakeries along our high streets.”
EDUCATION
2021-2023 MA Print, Royal College of Art
2019-2020 Printmaking Traineeship, London Print Studio
2016-2019 BFA Fine Art, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford
Residencies
2022 Creative Spark Residency Programme
2021 Art | Science Artist Residency Programme of the Art, Biodiversity and Climate Network
Awards/funding
2021 Burberry Design Scholarship
2016-2019 Reuben Foundation Scholarship
Exhibitions
2023 Clifford Chance Postgraduate Printmaking Survey, Clifford Chance Offices, London
2023 RE International Original Printmaking Competition, Bankside Gallery, London
2023 Bainbridge Open 2023, ASC Handbag Factory, London
2023 Two Fold, Southwark Park Galleries, London
2022 Annual Open Exhibition, Southwark Park Galleries, London
2022, DWELL, An Tain Arts Centre, Dundalk, Ireland
2022 The Damage is Done, Pumphouse Gallery, London
2021 Among the Garbage and the Flowers, Le 6B, Paris
2021 Among the Garbage and the Flowers, Oxford Natural History Museum, Oxford
2021 01/BLUE (The X Collab), Stanley Picker Gallery, London
2020 19 plus one, virtual exhibition, https://19plus.one/
2020 Extinction Underground Vault Festival, Vault, London
2019 Entropy, Topos Projects, London
2019 Haven’t Finished Speaking Yet, Take Courage Gallery, London
2019 Ruskin Degree Show 2019, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford
2019 Hogacre Art Show, Hogacre Common, Oxford
2019 Diffracting Matters, North Wall Arts Gallery, Oxford
2018 LiveFriday: Spellbound, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
2018 Hogacre Art Show, Hogacre Common, Oxford
2017 Prelim Degree Show, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford
2017 Eat Your Vegetables, Dolphin Gallery, Oxford
