Born in India and now living in Brooklyn NY, Jaza has established herself as a researcher, designer, and a mixed-media artist.

Jaza graduated from California College of the Arts in San Francisco with a concentration in industrial design, and then pursued a masters in Human Computer Interaction from DePaul University in Chicago. Her varied backgrounds has culminated into a career in mixed-media printmaking and user research.

Artist's Statement

As someone whose body exists outside of eurocentric ideals, I move through a culture that often demands assimilation in exchange for belonging. This pressure intensifies for those of us who are women, queer, fat, or people of color. A conversation shaped by body politics, my work explores the tension between the perceived self and the embodied self. In response, my practice becomes a reclamation of space — a return to the body as it is, in its fullness and freedom.

I work primarily with monotype printmaking techniques, using images captured during moments of deep connection with nature — while hiking, swimming, or simply being still. These are moments where my body feels free, unobserved, and completely at home. Through print, I re-visualize these experiences, focusing not on how my body looked, but on how it felt. The unpredictability of monotypes mirrors the rawness of these encounters — layered, intuitive, and deeply personal.

My prints are not just images; they are records of sensation, vulnerability, and liberation. They investigate the irregularities between body and environment, between internal perception and societal gaze. By inviting viewers into this space, I hope they are prompted to consider their own bodies — how they belong, how they are seen, and how they might be freed from the weight of imposed norms.

Ultimately, my work is a gesture toward freedom: a quiet resistance against cultural erasure and a reimagining of self through nature, memory, and mark-making.