Yask Desai is an independent visual artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Yask Desai is a Melbourne-based Australian-Indian visual artist who works with photography, video, archives and text. His work concerns itself with themes of place and collective and individual identity. Desai often combines historical and social research to explore the cultural connections between imagery, history and constructions of identity.
In 2021 he was a finalist in Gradfoto 2020 (part of the Ballarat Photo Biennial) for his work Telia. He is also a finalist in the Wyndam Art Prize, 2021.
In 2020 a work from Telia was a winner in the Portrait of Britain Prize.
In 2019 he was a finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize of Australia and he was also a semi finalist in the Moran Photographic Prize and the HeadON Portrait Prize.
He was finalist in the Contemporary Landscape In Photography (CLIP) award at the Perth Centre for Contemporary Photography in 2018. In May 2018 he was a finalist in the Aussie Street Award (HeadON Photography Festival, Sydney) and was awarded the Australian Centre for Photography’s Most Critically Engaged Work award at the Melbourne Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) Summer Salon in December 2018.
His 2018 book, Craigieburn, it’s not the same was nominated as one of 12 finalists for the 2018 Australia and New Zealand Photobook of the Year and won the Highly Commended award.
Telia will culminate in an exhibition of images, video and a photobook in Melbourne, Australia in 2021.
