Artist

SUGIYA DEVI

Sugiya Devi of Kharati village in Barkagaon block of Hazaribag district would have hardly imagined that their art, which is nothing but a tribal tradition of painting mud houses, would one day decorate the interiors of Spa in USA or hotel in London. Laura Aviva, self-made entrepreneur from USA, was attracted by the black and white wall paintings of tribal village in Hazaribag when it got published in a magazine -The World of Interiors in its December 2014 issue. Noted German architecture photographer Deidi Von Schaewen had captured the mud houses of tribal villagers which went into publication with an article titled "monsoon murals'. Aviva contacted the women artists of Tribal Women Artists Cooperative (TWAC), Hazaribag and decided to enter into a copyright contract for purchasing the art.