Dara Oshin

Biography

Dara Oshin (b. New Jersey, USA) is a Brooklyn-based visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, mixed-media assemblage, and installation. Her representational work explores themes of cultural and personal identity, belief systems, life cycle transitions, migration, and transformation. Grounded in the belief that nature is a sacred and unifying force, Oshin weaves together a symbolic visual language derived from organic elements such as eggs, roots, insects, and seed pods. She emphasizes sustainability by incorporating recycled, found, non-toxic, and biodegradable materials into her creative process.

Oshin’s current body of work reflects her experiences living in foreign cultures and the inherited narratives of her ancestors who emigrated to the United States seeking refuge from persecution. Using botanical root structures as metaphors for displacement and adaptation, she investigates how being uprooted and transplanted influences identity, belonging, and one’s connection to place.

Oshin earned a BA in English with a minor in Studio Art and has continued her studies at various ateliers in the U.S. and abroad. She received a Moonbeam Award for illustrating the children’s book When Santa’s Hat Fell From the Sky. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally and is held in private collections worldwide.

Artist statement

I use a variety of mediums to make two and three dimensional representational work from observation that asks philosophical questions about the environment, belonging and belief. Imagery of ephemeral elements such as seed pods, egg shells, and roots serve as metaphors for personal experiences as well as reflections on society and the greater world. My work is mainly comprised of mysterious and otherworldly assemblages, drawings, paintings and photography that serve as a Rorschach test providing inspiration to the minds eye.