About

Nilou Moochhala’s visual practice (art & design) has been channeled into examining issues of cross-cultural change and transformation through collaging and assemblage techniques. Originally from Mumbai, she has been inspired to juxtapose found objects, memorabilia, and use of language to create social and political narratives, be it in public street spaces or private art galleries.

Moochhala has exhibited in numerous gallery spaces such as Fountain Street Gallery (Boston), Cambridge Art Association (Cambridge), and the BWAC Gallery (Brooklyn), among others. In contrast, her public art installation “Rhetoric of Opposites” on the Minuteman Bikeway used street typography to juxtapose 25 pairs of opposing words that highlighted the divisive political narrative that exists today. Moochhala was selected as the Spring 2021 Artist-in-Residence by the Arlington Commission on Arts & Culture for her 6-month public art installation Reflecting on Our Pandemic Experience at Menotomy Rocks Park, which included over 100 ‘meditation storytelling’ flags that visually translated interviews with community stakeholders documenting their Covid-19 pandemic experiences. She was part of Fountain Street Gallery in Boston’s SoWa Arts District till 2023, where she curated their final winter exhibit Limitless Translations. Her 250th anniversary project (commissioned by the Arlington Commission on Arts and Culture) connected the history of the American Revolution with contemporary stories, and was installed along the same route that Paul Revere rode in 1775.

Moochhala’s pandemic daily drawings ‘The Virus Series’ are archived at Brown’s Pandemic Journaling Project, Cornell University, and the National Women’s History Museum. Nilou has been an adjunct professor at SUNY Purchase School of Art+Design, as well a visiting critic at MICA and AIGA Boston. She is an award recipient of numerous grants including the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MA250, National Park Service, and New England Foundation for the Arts. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Boston Globe, WBUR, PBS, Artscope, India New England, Art Outdoors, and Big, Red & Shiny, among others.

Moochhala received her Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Yale University School of Art. Prior to that, she was awarded her Bachelor’s in Studio Art from Mount Holyoke College.

She can be reached at [nilou at nymdesign dot com]