Anna Sidana

Lives and works in San Francisco, CA, USA

Artist statement

I came to the arts very late in life – approximately seven years ago – and began my artistic journey with abstract landscapes rooted in childhood memory that connect me to my family and culture. In these landscapes I explore my childhood and the complex, often contradictory nature of my Indian heritage. As an immigrant, I feel simultaneous kinship with several cultures – at times feeling at home and at others, completely unsettled. Navigating these moments of uncertainly and dislocation have led me down this path in my art. In my search of a cultural connection with my heritage, I stumbled upon hazy memories of my early years on our family farm in Rajasthan, India— afternoons playing hide-and-seek among mango orchards, racing through cotton fields, and savoring ripe pomegranates. These fleeting yet vivid recollections quickly become central to my creative practice. Cotton, a material steeped in both personal and historical resonance, emerges in my work as a metaphor for identity, memory, and belonging. Through it, I engage with intimate and collective histories—bridging past and present, myth and reality. The cotton flower is interwoven into abstract landscapes that are not specific places but rather an immersive and visceral experience. These landscapes draw upon the emotions, scent and color, that shaped my earliest experiences offering a world of sensuous moods in familiar but dreamlike labyrinths where memory and imagination come together. In large-scale paintings, I...

Artwork