Chanika Svetvilas

Chanika Svetvilas is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker whose practice explores mental health differences, including her bipolar experience, through installation, sculpture, drawing, video, mixed media, and performative actions.

She has exhibited at the Denver International Airport; the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (NYC); Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum; Hunterdon Art Museum; the Brooklyn Public Library; and the Asian Arts Initiative. She has presented her video work at the Ruthin International Film Festival, RestFest Film Festival, Berlin Neurocinema, and Millennium Film Workshop. She received a Bangkok Golden Elephant Award for her experimental short film, Silent Screaming Siren.

She was an artist-in-residence at the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab at Princeton University for the 2022–23 academic year and a Visiting Scholar at the A/P/A Institute at New York University for the 2024–2025 academic year. She received a 2025 Individual Artist Finalist Award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her writing has appeared in Wordgathering and Disability Studies Quarterly. She has also presented at the College Art Association Conference, Society for Disability Studies Conference, and Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Conference.

Svetvilas was born in Buffalo, NY, to Thai immigrant parents. She earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. She lives in Princeton Junction, NJ.

chanikasvetvilas.com
@chanikasvetvilas

Open Studio: May 1