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INDIAN AMERICAN ARTISTS INDIAN AMERICAN ARTISTS Freedom From the Past? by Lavina Melwani [[two images]] ELA SHAH, FREEDOM FROM THE PAST As the Indian population has multiplied in the tri-state region, the number of artists of Indian origin has also grown. From the four or five artists who made New York home in the 1960's, there are now more than 35 artists at different levels and stages in their careers. Not all these artists share their search for identity on canvas, nor do they need to. Art can be a soulful prayer, a scathing social or political comment, or simply a testament to ethereal beauty; it does not have to be the equivalent of the psychoanalyst's couch or a memoir. In fact, as Vishaka Desai, Director of Asia Society Galleries, emphasized at the opening of 'Asia/America: Identities in Contemporary Asian American Art', this is not the definitive exhibition of contemporary Asian art; it magnifies one particular aspect of it--the search for identity. Using this exhibition as a springboard, Little India talked to Indian-American artists about identity and art. Some artists do not use their art as a catharsis. An artist whose heart is in India in New Jersey-based Ela Shah. When she came to this country 16 years ago, the exposure to the new culture was traumatic. She recalls, "The colors left me, I just couldn't paint. It was a kind of cultural shock. After a few years it came back." Ela Shah's murals, paintings and sculptures are about search and survival, and echo her own dislocation. She describes the symbolism of her art: "The child-like figure reflects my efforts to survive in a different culture." Since completing her M.F.A in Montclair State College, Shah has participated in several solo and group shows in the tri-state area. Over the years, she has gradually shaped her Indian-American identity, working in an artists' colony with over 50 American artists, as well as from her own studio in Montclair. Shah has also served as 32 LITTLE INDIA MARCH 1994