Purvai Rai, 2024 Henry Moore Foundation resident

September 19, 2024 

This summer, the YCBA welcomed Purvai Rai, the most recent recipient of the Henry Moore Foundation residency. As part of the residency, the Henry Moore Foundation (HMF) and the YCBA annually award a monthlong residency to a current MFA student or recent MFA graduate of Yale School of Art with an interest in Henry Moore’s art and life.

Rai is a 2025 MFA candidate in painting/printmaking. Her work pulls from memory, identity, and materiality and utilizes ritualistic, repetitive practices such as weaving, mark-making, and printmaking. Thematically, she traces the evolution of Punjab across generations, examining the influence of changing regimes and sociopolitical structures. With this research, she reassesses ideas of tangible and intangible inheritance, the influence of place on memory transmission, and how these factors coalesce to manifest identity.

Interested in Henry Moore's process of starting tapestries with pencil, ink, and watercolors rather than a predetermined grid, during her residency Rai investigated how drawings can act as the foundation for woven images and composition. While her own work spans mediums, she usually begins by experimenting with drawing, collage, and painting before moving to textiles.

Rai also facilitates public programs, teaches, and promotes accessibility in the art world through her socially engaged practices such as ArtCurate, ArtChainIndia, and the Raghu Rai Foundation. These projects align with her interest in learning about the HMF's methods for archiving and presenting Moore's work, fostering community engagement, and integrating artistic legacies into the surrounding landscape.