Meena uses charcoal, ashes, soil and wax to create paintings, combining abstraction, portraiture, and figuration, exploring the spaces between grief and joy, life and death. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, focusing on painting and drawing from The University of Texas at Austin in 2000. After a long break from creating art, during which time she lived overseas serving with a non-profit organization, Meena returned to her native home of Austin, Texas where she now makes art full time. Meena had her inaugural solo show in 2017 at the Asian American Resource Center in Austin,TX and has exhibited at galleries nationwide including Women and Their Work, The Gallery at Atelier 1205, Big Medium Gallery, Sojourn Arts Gallery, Verum Ultimum, and others. She has been listed as an artist to see by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin’s Sightlines Magazine, Austin Monthly Magazine and Art Profiler. Her work is held in private and public collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Meena Matocha is a visual artist exploring the space between grief and joy, life and death...the place where heaven and earth converge. Meditation, ancient prayers, and contemplation play large parts in her creative process. Her current body of work combines her love of the portrait and figure with the dramatic expression of abstraction. Matocha’s curiosity about how material contributes to the meaning and emotion of an art work has caused her to explore the use of charcoal and soil as a prominent mediums. Ash symbolizing humanity’s finitude, and soil symbolizing new life out of death and decay.