Sarsabzi

Hannah Traore Gallery is pleased to present Sarsabzi, the second solo exhibition with artist and designer Misha Japanwala. Featuring all-new work that expands on Japanwala's Topographies series—first exhibited at EXPO Chicago in 2024—Sarsabzi deepens her exploration of the human form as a natural landscape, capturing wrinkles, body hair, scars, and other details as topographic features that mark growth and transformation. Known for her signature body casts and sculptural garments, Japanwala's practice centers the rejection of shame often imposed on the bodies of femme and nonbinary folks. Drawing on the Urdu word "sarsabzi," meaning lushness, verdancy, or prosperity, the exhibition parallels bodily "overgrowth" with thriving natural environments, redefining so-called "blemishes" as marks of flourishing and abundance. The exhibition features collective sculptural collages composed of cast body parts from multiple muses, salon-style series spotlighting scar tissues and stretchmarks, and an eponymous installation that grows throughout the exhibition's duration with nipple moldings from public participants.