The Fresh List 2018: Alaiia Gujral

An interdisciplinary artist, Alaiia Gujral loves to stretch the envelope with various materials. And with Canvas Chicago, Satish Gujral’s granddaughter is helping curate unusual immersive experiences. Her masterpiece so far involved modifying porcelain and using natural indigo pigment to cast fabric. Alaiia hopes people take back the understanding that anything that is complete, beautiful or successful is the result of a winding road.

You, in three words: tenacious, innovative and progressive.

Your first tryst with art: as a child, I had a hard time communicating with my grandfather, so instead of talking I would draw him little images and he would respond by drawing images back. It was like we had our own secret language! This is one of the fondest memories that I have of the start of my artistic journey.

Your very first creation was…an origami skirt made out of a tablecloth when I was exploring the fine line between art and fashion.

On your bucket list is…owning my own art collection, running an art organisation that creates platforms internationally and saving all the homeless dogs in the world.

An all-time favourite read is…Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. This book can be read back to front and it describes dream cities through the art of language.

Wardrobe essentials are…a good pair of black jeans, a bright fun pair of earrings that can dress up any casual outfit and an accessory in a colour that pops — be it a bright handbag, belt or shoes.

If you could have any job for a day…I would want Peggy Guggenheim’s job. Being able to contribute to the art world at such a high level would be the only job I would ever want.

On the year that was: it was a year of creative ideas that went from my sketches in a book to actual physical creations.