Sneha Ganguly (born 1989, Jamshedpur, India), also known as Kali Mushrooms, is an interdisciplinary artist practicing on the land of the Lenape, meditating on the art and science of mycology, cultural preservation, and reincarnation.  Sneha identifies and studies wild fungi with a special interest in biological materials and pigments, and synthesizes their alchemical and chitinous properties to create handmade papers, inks, dyes and extracts.  Her work explores the potential of novel mushroom- and mycelium-based materials as an artistic medium, to communicate modern mythologies on fungal science, animisms, and lessons from the wild.  Her current research and aesthetic interests include fungal sensorial ecologies, materiality, and intelligence, through the entanglements of spirituality, philosophy, art history, bio-technology, ecology, electronics and agriculture.

Sneha is passionate about culturing community, diversity and equity in the mycological space.  As part of the New York Mycological Society, she founded NYC’s inaugural Fungus Festival and the club’s community outreach initiative.  She is co-founder of the POC Fungi Community.  She instructs courses on mycology and mushroom cultivation for Cornell Small Farms, as well as for parks, community and cultural organizations in the metro area.  You can read about her work in the New York Times, Yes! Magazine, and Time Out NYC. 

Sneha has over a decade of professional experience in fine art. After graduating from Rutgers University with a double major in art history and economics, she went on to installing museum exhibitions and managing fine art collections as Rajas Art Services. She completed fellowships and residencies with The Art & Law Program, City-wide Monuments Conservation Program, Queens Museum, Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture, and electronic textile camp. Her work has been exhibited at the Paul Robeson Galleries, Centro Cultural de la Raza, Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, and the Urban Soils Symposium at the LMCC Arts Center. She has also lectured on labor in the art market at the St. John’s Masters Program in Museum Studies and the CUNY PhD program in Art History.