EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
  • Home
  • Recent News
  • Community
    • Advisors & Editorial Team
    • Contributors
    • Governor General Laureates
    • In Memoriam
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About

SHARMISTHA KAR

Picture
Sharmistha Kar
Sharmistha Kar is an art practitioner from India and currently living and working in London, Ontario. She holds an MFA from Western University, focusing on hand-embroidery. 

Kar’s early education began in West Bengal, India and later continued in Hyderabad where she pursued higher education in Fine Arts at the University of Hyderabad in 2009. She then pursued her studio practice as an invited artist at Space Studio, Vadodara, Gujarat, India returning to Hyderabad in 2012 to join the International Institute of Information Technology as a lecturer. She was awarded the prestigious Charles Wallace India Trust Award to do a three months artist in residence program at Newcastle University, United Kingdom in 2013. After her return, she worked as a visiting faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University in Hyderabad. She was awarded with the Gold Medal for First Rank as an MFA, University of Hyderabad in 2009; and Dean’s and Chair’s Entrance Scholarships at Western University, London, Ontario in 2016, as well as the Graduate Thesis Research Award in 2018. 

Kar’s journey with hand-embroidery started as a student in Calcutta, India, and she has used that knowledge as a medium in her art practice, from 2008 onward, along with drawing and painting. She has exhibited in India, UK, the USA, Finland and in Canada. Kar is one of the artists involved in GardenShip & State which will open at Museum London in September 2021. For more information, please visit her website.

Picture
“Soft Shelter-Tabernacles and the river," 2020
​The work, titled Soft Shelter-Tabernacles and the river, focuses on the Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River and also known as the Thames River) in London, Ontario. Rivers are fundamental to human society because it was in river valleys and deltas that the first great civilizations were found around agriculture.  I see the Deshkan Ziibi almost every day, especially when crossing one of the many bridges that span it. I am always fascinated that the human structures around rivers depend on the river as a life source. The rivers, however, are organic and take different shapes at different times, regardless of the human societies developing around them. I am aware of and sincerely appreciate the active ongoing project to maintain the Deshkan Ziibi's well-being in London, Ontario. This particular work reflects the idea of growth, mobility, personhood in nature and culture from an individual experience.

Recent work by Sharmistha

Picture
…who walks always beside you, 2017
Picture
What are the roots that clutch, 2017
Picture
Soft Shelter IV, 2018
Picture
Map of London , 2016-17
Picture
"Knowing Her—Malala Yousafzai," hand embroidery and found lace flower, 2014


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou Smoke, and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Jared Hendricks-Polack, Jessica Irene Joyce, Ira Kazi, 
Shelley Kopp, Jenna Rose Sands, Mireya Seymour, Venus Tsao, Diana Tamblyn, and Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAILING LIST
/* real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups */

Intuit Mailchimp


OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the mentorship program established by Western University's Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
Picture

Our Partners

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.

Copyright © 2025  Embassy Cultural House.
All rights reserved.
Proudly powered by Weebly

  • Home
  • Recent News
  • Community
    • Advisors & Editorial Team
    • Contributors
    • Governor General Laureates
    • In Memoriam
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About