Works by Namita Paul
On View
August 20 – October 25, 2026
Miro Gallery
181 E. Santa Clara, San Jose, CA 95113
Thresholds of Memory is open to the public as part of South First Fridays on September 4 and October 2, or by appointment. To make an appointment, please email LAP_Programs@montalvoarts.org.
About the Exhibition
Thresholds of Memory, a solo exhibition of works by Namita Paul, examines the emotional imprint of architecture—the way that built environments hold our stories, form us, and become part of who we are. Rooted in thresholds—between home and displacement, containment and unraveling—Paul’s mixed-media textile installations engage themes of longing and loss. Negotiating the tension between fragility and resilience, the resulting work invites sustained reflection on memory, absence, and the enduring capacity for grace.
This exhibition is organized by Montalvo Arts Center’s Lucas Artists Program in conjunction with its 2026 Marcus Exhibition, The Art & Architecture of Maybe.
Curator: Judy Koong Dennis, Assistant Curator and Program Manager
Featured Artist
Namita Paul
2023 CA Visual Arts Fellow
Namita Paul, born in Jalandhar, India, and now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an interdisciplinary artist who constructs material “thresholds” that hold memory, rupture, and repair. Working with stitched canvas, cultural and ritual objects, glass, and accumulated fragments, she creates artworks that function as both architectural structures and bodily skins.
Her practice engages the emotional afterlives of space, where histories of home, displacement, and loss are embedded into form. Through processes of stitching, layering, and material accumulation, she constructs walls and surfaces that act as containers—holding traces of what has been broken, carried, and reconstituted. Rather than representing memory, Paul embeds it physically, allowing material to register time, impact, and transformation. Her work operates as both structures and witnesses, translating personal experience into shared spatial and emotional encounters.
Paul holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts and an MA in Cultural Studies from the University of Washington, and an MFA from the California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at the ICA San José, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), and soon, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.
Photo by Paul Gallo
Sponsors
The exhibition is made possible by the George and Judy Marcus Family Foundation, the Jo and Barry Ariko Fund for Artistic Programs, and Lucy Li. It is presented with gratitude and appreciation for the Lucas Artists Program Committee, the Montalvo Acquisition Committee, and the many partners who invest in Montalvo Arts Center.