Indira Allegra’s work explores memorial as a genre and a vital part of the human experience. Allegra re-imagines what a memorial can feel like and how it can function through the practices of performance, sculpture and installation. The three practices are intertwined - with sculptures at times initiating performances, performances creating sculptures and sculptures expanding into installation environments. Deeply informed by the ritual, relational and performative aspects of weaving, Allegra explores the repetitive crossing of forces held under tension be they material, social or emotional.
Their work has been featured in exhibitions at Museum of Arts and Design, The Arts Incubator in Chicago, John Michael Kholer Arts Center, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Center for Craft Creativity and Design, Mills College Art Museum, Weinberg/Newton and the Museum of the African Diaspora among others. Their commissions include performances for SFMOMA, de Young Museum, The Wattis Institute, City of Oakland and SFJAZZ Poetry Festival. Allegra’s work has been featured on BBC Radio 4, Art Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and Surface Design Magazine. They have been the recipient of the Artadia Award, Mike Kelley Artist Project Grant, MAP Fund, Windgate Craft Fellowship and Jackson Literary Award. They are the 2019/2020 Burke Prize winner, Fleishhacker Eureka Fellow and a triennial 2019-2022 Montalvo Art Center Sally and Don Lucas Artist Fellow. Allegra teaches in the Graduate Art and Visual Culture Department at Mills College.