Spotlight Artist

Ruhee Maknojia

West
Artist profile photo

Gallery Affiliations:

839 Gallery

The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of Jinn

Abstract art with a blue figure, zebra stripes, green background, and purple geometric lines.

acrylic on canvas

Fantastical Beast and Ritual

Two figures in patterned dresses stand back to back on a bone-covered ground with a black dog.

acrylic on canvas

Entangled

Two abstract, patterned figures embrace under a blue moon with a geometric orange background.

acrylic on canvas

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

Ruhee Maknojia is a painter, animator, and installation artist based in Houston, Texas. Her artistic practice examines how literature, philosophy, history, and legal systems undergo fragmentation when transferred across new frameworks. She received her M.F.A. in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2019 and appointed Dean at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2025. She served as the Artist-in-Residence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the spring of 2024 where she taught advanced painting and graduate seminar classes.

Maknojia’s work has been exhibited at various institutions and galleries including Subliminal Projects and 839 Gallery in Los Angeles, California; the Lenfest Center for the Arts and the LeRoy Neiman Center for the Arts in New York City; Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts and Asia Society Texas in Houston, Texas.

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Education

  • MFA, Columbia University, New York, NY, US
  • Art, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME, US
  • BA, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, US

Residencies

  • Artist on Site, Asia Society Texas, Houston, TX, US
  • Artist in Residence, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, US

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