Image Credit - India Art Fair
Mira Felicia Malhotra, alias Kohla, is a designer and graphic artist who has a gift for colour. And in
her daring feminist pop art, women shine brilliantly, joyfully and confidently embracing their distinct
identities as a group. Mira is extraordinarily adaptable and skilled; she creates zines, animations,
murals, and illustrations while rejecting categorizations of high and low art and embracing each medium
for what it can do. She stands out in all of her work for her compelling narration of the lives of the
women who surround her, whether it be on a billboard in South Bombay or a hidden wall in her neighbourhood
in the North, the cover of a glossy magazine or on a table at a zine bazaar.
Born in New Delhi and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she lived until she was 11 years old,
the artist recalls the early influences on her aesthetic sensibilities, including Bugs Bunny and The
Jetsons on television, the neon packaging of candies like Nerds and Bubbleyum, the marshmallow stars
and planets in the limited-edition Count Chocula breakfast cereal, and the mind-boggling aisles of the
country's enormous toy stores. She recalls a time that, with its embrace of all things cartoony,
colourful, and graphic, continues to have an influence on her work today: "This was my entertainment and
this was my life."