Ajaya Bhatnagar
We Love Ajaya. Ajaya, who also goes by the name Maggie, is a San Francisco–based interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the relationship between movement, ecology, and transformation. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance, she investigates how the body and the natural world reflect one another through cycles of growth, decay, and renewal. Her practice invites us into quiet moments of reflection, where gesture and material converge to express the energy that connects all living things.
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Bachelor of Fine Arts from California College of the Arts, with a focus on painting, drawing, illustration, and sculpture.
She also completed double minors in Ecological Practices and History of Art & Visual Culture
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Creative Environmental Award from the State of Estuary Conference, nominated by the Asian American Women Artist Association (2025).
International Creative Achievement Award, CCA, San Francisco, CA (2020).
Solo show at Seven Mirrors, Oakland, CA titled Mindscape (2024).
Solo show titled Life on Other Worlds at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2023).
Featured at the DeYoung Open (2023).
Group exhibition titled Bone Deep at Ushi Gallery, Emeryville, CA (2023).
Several group exhibitions during her time at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
“I work with language of place & memory, letting each site—whether my home in San Francisco or somewhere in India—shape both what I remember & what I become.”
Ajaya’s work resonates deeply with our spirit of connection and shared experience. Through her exploration of movement and transformation, she reminds us that art is a living dialogue—between the artist and the viewer, the body and the landscape, the individual and the collective. Her practice invites community through presence, reflection, and the quiet act of noticing how we are all intertwined.
Select Works by Ajaya
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5212 Broadway, 2022
soil, pebbles, grass, leaves, clay, gesso, acrylic medium, glue on wood
24 x 24 inches
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The 5 A.M. Drive, 2023
oil paint, plaster, sculpting paste on canvas
42 x 36 inches
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Crissy Field, 2022
sand, soil, gesso, acrylic medium, shells, and rocks on carving block
20 ½ x 20 ½ inches
