Tarla Patel is a multidisciplinary artist from Coventry, exploring identity, memory and space through migration and storytelling, championing hidden voices. She has worked on international and UK projects with artists, organisations, and communities. Tarla is the proud custodian of her father Maganbhai Patel (Masterji) photography archive provides a visual documented of people migrating from the Indian subcontinent and settling in the UK from 1950s to 2000. Her direction of work primarily run through the ideas of memory, space, and identity; through stories of migration and how it connects through generations, and shapes our sense of belonging in the world we live in.
Tarla has planned and facilitated workshops with a mixed age group to explore themes of identity, and belonging to questions on social mobility, conflict, and resolution, facilitating half day workshops on using collage making, craft and photography. She has spoken and written about her father’s work and been invited onto panel talks to talk about the importance of representation in the arts.
Tarla has worked with the Universities of Warwick, Coventry and Derby. Art organisations Compton Verney Art Gallery and Museum, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Warwick Arts Centre, Artcore Contemporary Gallery and the POD cafe (Coventry council mental health initiative) to overseas art events: Focus Festival, Mumbai India and the Lightfield Festival New York.
Published work
This space is taken – Coexist page 16
Racist Tones by the Four Writers Group
AWAAZ Womens Group – Poetry
My dedication to representing my father’s photography work, has led to the following awards in recognition of his photographic work.
- Winner of the Eastern Eye ACTA (Arts Culture & Theatre Awards) for Photography supported by the British Army ‘Masterji’ Maganbhai Patel February 2023
- Through the lens of Masterji was nominated for the Best Live event category for the Asian Media Awards in November 2022.
Tarla Patel 