BIO

Shyama Golden got her start entering rodeo art competitions and wasting actual film taking photos of neighborhood cats in Houston, Texas. Drawing horses was her thing, until middle school, when she taught herself how to write HTML from a Dummies book so she could make her own websites.

Currently, Shyama’s oil, acrylic, and iPad paintings use figuration to explore how identity is experienced, performed, and reinforced. Her work often focuses on intersectional identities, particularly those of hyphenated-Americans. The subjects she depicts are a combination of real and imagined people, with masks and animals often functioning as metaphors for human social dynamics. Discover more about the artist on her website (https://shyamagolden.com/about).