Ajay Malghan is an American artist and son of immigrant parents from India. His mother was usually found combining cultures at home, and his father, a Materials Scientist and Engineer often brought him to the lab. The daily experimentations happening around him, both personal and scientific, would later inform his work. While his parents wanted him to follow more straightforward career paths, he was the first in his family to eschew their expectations and pursue art and music instead.
Malghan went on to receive an MFA in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design - Hong Kong. Here he experimented in a darkroom, bleaching film, adding watercolor to glass plates, thinly cross-sectioning fruits and vegetables until they formed abstractions, beginning his exploration into the repurposing of materials. In his twenties, Malghan was diagnosed with Leukemia, the treatment of which resulted in avascular necrosis, a bone disease that eventually required numerous surgeries and three hip replacements. His experience through illness and recovery not only led him to photography, but also informs his manipulation of raw, often overlooked materials in order to reorient our understanding of beauty, pleasure, and purpose.
Malghan has been exhibited across the country and has lectured in Hong Kong, India, the University of Texas, the University of Notre Dame - Maryland, and UMLAUF Sculpture & Design Museum. He most recently has been commissioned by The Walters Art Museum, and his work is in the private collections of Johns Hopkins University, the University of Texas, and Georgetown University. His work has also been featured in Wired, NPR, National Geographic, Vice, and elsewhere.
