On Friday March 30th, Sahayta held a fund raiser at the Bernie Toale Gallery and the Boston Sculptor Gallery featuring the works of South Asian artists Ambreen Butt, Ayesha Shariff, Aparna Agarwal, Mahendra Paul, Noel Bonam, Fozia Vasowalla and Lucida Dassardo-Cooper. The event was attended by nearly 100 people.

Ambreen Butt work was displayed at the Bernie Toale Galery. Her work was fresh and offers a playful perspective. Her favored format is figures in miniature form superimposed on different textured backgrounds. Women and Polka dots occurred frequently. The feel of her work is a lightness in the treatment, while provoking some profound thought.

The Boston Sculptor Gallery held work by other artists. Noel Bonam's work varied from patterns to fine outlines of faces. Lucilda Cooper had figures in saris with colors that glowed. The “Cosmic” series had the Natarja dancing amidst vibrant background. Ayesha Shariff showed amongst other work a soft corner with roses, which really seemed to hold secrets, like their title. Aparna Aggarwal’s work was primarily bold lines on textured backgrounds. Mahendar Paul focussed on Tribal India, where as Fozia Vasowalla displayed beautiful paintings of vegetables and flowers.

In addition, the exhibition featured talks by Gabriel Bown (photographs) and Ajmara Lin (photographs) on effect on 9/11 on Asian diaspora, poetry by Sarbani Hazra and a short screening of the documentary 'Divided We Fall' by Valarie Kaur.

Here are pictures of few pieces of the work displayed by the artists.

The brains behind the event were Usha Govindarajulu and Aman Khaira. The event helped raise $2000. This money will be used to fund the complete chemotherapy treatment for 3 patients and fund the education of 10 children for 1 year. If you would like to help, please visit www.sahayta.org.

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