Nikita Abraham is a visual artist. Their work can be found at pop-up shops and online as @chromatophore.
Huge thanks to Dayroom & Em’s for letting SLUG use their beautiful cafe and restaurant space.
Every month, SLUG Style features a distinct and unique member of the community and asks them why they do what they do. Exploring more than just clothing, SLUG Style is an attempt to feature the people who give Salt Lake City flavor through personality and panache.
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“I do mostly paintings and drawings. Within the last year I’ve started to do more digital media, which has been a lot of fun,” says Abraham. “I started to do art in high school and then I got more and more into it. And then once I found the art community in Salt Lake, I started to do more pop up shows and it kind of helped me propel my art forward.”
Photo: @clancycoop
“I’m Indian. My parents immigrated here. I was born in the States, but I have a lot of family in India,” says Abraham. “I go to India every couple of years. I can’t wear like saris or the traditional outfits like an Indian from India does. And so I’ve kind of learned how to make Indian clothing and Western clothing work for my personality.”
Photo: @clancycoop
“Day to day I wear a lot of thrifted outfits,” says Abraham. “When I buy clothing I’m mostly attracted to bright colors cause that’s kind of how my art feels to me. I enjoy making color palettes, and then I feel like over time I started to adopt those color palettes into the way that I dressed.”
Photo: @clancycoop
“I love cooking. Apart from art that’s the other thing I really love doing. And I love science,” says Abraham. “I like biology a lot. I went to school for biology and it’s kind of something that’s just taken with me. That’s how I obtained my art name, chromatophore. They’re like the pigment cells in plants and octopi and all those little cuties that can change colors.”
Photo: @clancycoop
“There specific outfits that I feel more comfortable wearing to work,” says Abraham. “Stuff that’s a little bit more muted just to help me kind of go through the job a little bit easier without questions about like, ‘Oh what’s your outfit?’ and stuff like that. I definitely don’t dress up to the grocery store. I don’t got time for that.”
Photo: @clancycoop
“I love wearing, like, Indian jewelry that I buy,” says Abraham. “And that first outfit I was wearing, the top and the scarf, those are both Indian outfits that I kind of hodgepodged into something that I would feel more comfortable wearing here. Just because wearing non-Western clothing in Utah can just be a little technically difficult.”
Photo: @clancycoop
![“I love cooking. Apart from art, that's the other thing I really love doing. And I love science,” says Abraham. “I like biology a lot. I went to school for biology and it's kind of something that [I've] just taken with me. That's how I obtained my art name, chromatophore. They're like the pigment cells in plants and octopi and all those little cuties that can change colors.” Photo: @clancycoop](https://www.slugmag.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/SLUG_Style_Niki_7.jpg)
