Bela Patel

  

Volume 10 | Issue II | June 2026

The Winsor School ’27

Massachusetts, United States

  

I’m interested in art not simply as an object of observation, but as a site of inquiry. My work explores how art constructs identity in relation to race and power, and how visual culture both reflects and shapes historical narratives. My research explores representations of Black figures in Renaissance Italy, examining how their presence in paintings was not incidental, but carefully staged within systems of patronage and social hierarchy. Through close visual analysis, I consider how artworks reflect, shape, or complicate traditional historical narratives, revealing as much about the societies that produced them as about the individuals they depict. In doing so, I am particularly attentive to the limits of these images, recognizing that they often reflect the perspectives of elite patrons rather than the lived experiences of Black subjects. Beyond this research, I have pursued similar questions through exhibition work. I recently curated an exhibit on Indian post-colonial stamps, exploring how small, everyday objects can carry complex ideas about national identity and collective memory. My experience with the exhibition deepened my awareness of how institutions shape interpretation, and how meaning is constructed through visual presentation. I’m ultimately interested in how visual culture, texts, and institutions are reflected over time in art, and how their presentation influences the way we understand both the past and present.