CV
​
Born in 1992, based in Santiniketan, WB, India.
Currently in Residency at Jester, Genk, Belgium.
Represented by Emami Art Gallery, Kolkata, India.
​
Educational Qualification:
​
2017 MFA, painting department, from Kala Bhavana Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, India.
2016 Student exchange program and Cultural Exchange at Yunnan University, China.
2015 BFA, painting department from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, India.
​
Awards | Scholarships:
​​
2025 The 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Grand Prize, Hong Kong.
2024 Second Place Winner, Third Edition of The Arts Family Emerging Artist Award
-South Asia, The Arts Family, London.
2023 MASH Young Artists’ Award, India.
2022 Prince Claus Seed Award, Prince Claus Fund, Netherlands.
2022 Inlaks Fine Art Award, Inlaks Foundation, India.
2020-21 Emerging Artist Award extended support platform from FICA &
MMF (Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation), India.
2019 State Award Fellowship in New Media, Prafulla Dhanukar Art Foundation, India.
2016 MOYTREE, an award from AIR, India.
2016 YOU Scholarship, from Telegraph, India.
2016 National Scholarship by CCRT Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India in Painting.
2016 Merit Scholarship, Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, India.
2014 Merit Scholarship, Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, India.
2013 BASUDHA 2013 award, Painting, BASUDHA Festival, Odisha, India.
2012 Merit Scholarship, Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, India.
​
Residencies:
​2024-25 Kyoto Art Centre, Kyoto, Japan.
2024 Jester, Genk, Belgium.​
2024 Hampi Art Labs, Hampi, Karnataka.
2022-23 Jan Van Eyck Residency, Maastricht, Netherlands.
2022 Inlaks Fine Art Award Residency at 1Shanthiroad, Bangalore, India.
2022 India Art Fair Artist in Residence, India.
2021 Gästeatelier Krone in association with Khoj Kolkata, at Aarau, Switzerland.
2020 Piramal Art Residency, cycle 24, Visualizing the text, Maharashtra, India.
​
Solo Shows:
​
2021 শ রী র | Körpe : The memory collector, Kunstrum, Aarau, Switzerland.
2018 A Walkover Senses, solo show at JANUS center for visual and performing art, Kolkata, India.
​
Solo Performances:
​
2023 Transitory Body performed at The Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium—Legacies of Care,
Failures and Emerging Solidarities, in collaboration with Geoffrey Bawa Trust and co-curated
by artistic director Keng Sen Ong, Sri Lanka.
2023 180 minutes of requiem performed at TRESPASSING: An (Un)Intended Unity, curated by
Puck van der Werf and Humie Pourseyf at Huis Marseille Museum of Photography,
Amsterdam for Museumnacht.
2023 Transitory Body performed at K21 Museum, Dusseldorf, Germany.
2022 Transitory Body performed at RIVERS AND ROAD: meandering stories of India, curated by Valeria
Contarino, Pranitha Joseph and Zhu Yaning, AAIE Center for Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy.
2022 Transitory Body performed at Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Rome, Italy.
2022 360 minutes of requiem performed at The studio, India Art Fair, New Delhi, India.
2020 Transitory Body: the memory collector, at Piramal Art Residency, cycle 24, Maharastra, India.
2019 In between the living and dead, Texting Being Theertha International Performance Platform,
curated by Smitha Cariappa & Jeetin Rangar Colombo, Srilanka.
2017 Creating to destroying, Human Ecology and Art, 3rd Multidisciplinary Art show, curated by
Chhatrapati Dutta Chittagong, Bangladesh.
​
Group Exhibitions | Performances (Selected):
​​
2025
Dialogues Across Time: Indian Contemporary and Folk Art presented by Indian Museum and Basu Foundation, curated by Sayantan Maitra Boka, Indian Museum, Kolkata, India.
​
2024
START Art Fair, The Arts Family (TAF) in London, UK.
Paanch, Cinci, Fünf, WÇ”, Cinque with Arpita Akhanda, Maria Balea, Alina Frieske, Stella Winter and Xuejing Wang, Galerie Russi Klenner, Berlin.
Art Düsseldorf, represented by Emami Art, Kolkata.
Imaging Arriving Departing, curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki, Exhibit 320.
India Art Fair, represented by Emami Art, Kolkata.
​
2023
Polyphonies in Distance, curated by Sibdas Sengupta, Gallery Dotwalk, Delhi.
You cannot step into the same river twice, Performance by Arpita Akhanda, Cristina Flores Pescorán, and Rehema Chachage, part of Murmuring Matter: On the Cosmopolitics of Materials, Museum Night Maastricht, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Netherlands.
Art Düsseldorf, represented by Emami Art, Kolkata, India.
India Art Fair, represented by Emami Art, Kolkata, India.
​
2022
RIVERS AND ROAD: meandering stories of India, curated by Valeria Contarino, Pranitha Joseph and Zhu Yaning, AAIE
Center for Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy.
AD Design Show, represented by Emami Art, Kolkata, India.
India Art Fair, represented by Emami Art, Kolkata, India.
​
2021
ISHAH, An exhibition of works by women artists, Amdavad ni Gufa, Ahmedabad, India.
Framing Infections, Pandemic as Portal by Badam Tree in association with 1.Shanthiroad Studio/Gallery, India.
Hub India, Artissima International Fair of Contemporary Art at Torino, Italy, curated by Myna Mukherjee and Davide Quadrio, represented by Emami Art, Italy.
Of Liminal Beings and other spaces, curated by Ushmita Sahu, Emami Art gallery, Kolkata, India.
The Trifecta of Movement, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, India.
The absent presence, an online & onsite performance, conceptualized by Arpita Akhanda, Emami Art Gallery, Kolkata, India.
​
2020
The Lay of the Land, Exhibit320, Art and Design Week, New Delhi, India.
Aroh, Emami Art Open Call - Online Exhibition and Mentorship Programme 1.3 curated by Ushmita Sahu, India.
Departure, a group show conceptualized by Prasanta Sahu, at Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata, India.
Freeing the Book A Group Show, Blueprint12, The Manor, New Delhi, India.
​
2019
Inside the fiber, a group show curated by Soma Bhowmik, Artsacre Museum, Kolkata, India.
Kolkata Art Fair, group show, Kolkata Center for Creativity, Kolkata, India.
Texting Being Theertha International Performance Platform, curated by Smitha Cariappa & Jeetin Rangar Colombo, Srilanka.
2018
Pentamerous, group show at Art Exposure, Kolkata, India.
​
2017
Human Ecology and Art, 3rd Multidisciplinary Art show, curated by Chhatrapati Dutta Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Barbil Art Project (BAP-III), curated by Ushmita Sahu, Barbil, Odisha, India.
The Shape of Things, a group show curated by Ushmita Sahu, Ganges Gallery, Kolkata, India.
​
Collections:
Art works in collection of various major private collections, including
Museum Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K21, Dusseldorf, Germany.
Piramal Foundation, Maharastra, India.
Emami Group, Kolkata, India.
​
Talks | Presentations | Workshops | Screenings:
​​
2024 Memory as a tool of Artistic production, online session for HFF School of Film and Visual Arts.
2024 The Memory Collector, Kala Dhara lecture-series programme, Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre, Bhubaneswar.
2024 Women in Leadership: An Important Catalyst for Economic Progress talk Organized by the
Bharat Chamber Ladies Forum and the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
2023 The Living Scar, screened as part of the Transitions, Special program: selected works
from the Jan van Eyck Academie Lumière (Lumière Cinéma, Maastricht), NL.
2023 Understanding Body as Home, Talk and Workshop at Central Saint Martin as part of
Subcontinent Divided Bringing communities together, A critical reflection on Independence
75 years project led by steering group at University of the Arts London (UAL), UK.
2023 Memory collector, Talk and Workshop as a part of Skillz Week in the Illustration
programme at Camberwell College of Arts, UK.
2023 The Living Scar & The last leap screened at Young Collectors Hub at Bikaner House, as a
part of India Art Fair (IFA), Delhi, IND.
2022 The Memory Collectors, Intergenerational Creative Engagements with Partition Oral
Histories and Archives, Speakers -Arpita Akhanda, Visual Artist; Aanchal Malhotra, Oral
Historian; Bani Singh, Filmmaker & Space Designer; Moderator- Urvashi Butalia Writer,
Publisher & Activist, By Bangalore International Centre (BIC), IND.
2022 WARP, WEFT, AND MEMORIES: Workshop at India Art Fair, curated by an art education
organisation LAND (Learning through Arts, Narrative and Discourse), New Delhi, IND.
2021 Transboundery Collaboration, Online Talk on Digital Community with Arpita Akhanda and
the artist duo Roger Wirz and Thomas Hüsler, moderated by Gitta Bertram curated by
Kollektiv Kollektiv, CH.
Publications | Reviews (selected):
​​​
2024 The Memory Collector, by Arman Khan, Vogue India Magazine (print + online), July-August issue.
K20 presents major works from the collection on an additional 800 m2, on artdaily.com, (Online), Nov.
The embodiment of memory: Arpita Akhanda’s exploration of identity & history, Popp Dapp Magazine, Vol VI Issue I, Oct-Nov, Interview Story (Online).
How Arpita Akhanda Collects Memories as Art, by Paridhi Badgotri, for Platform Magazine (Online).
Arpita Akhanda in conversation with Shalini Passi, on Mash website (online).
2022 MIT HAUT UND HAAR, published by Forum Schlossplatz, Aarau, Switzerland.
2021 Befragung der Fluchtbewegung by Michael Hunziker, AAKU Aargauer Kulturmagazin,
Aarau, Switzerland.
2021 An artist who weaves memories of the Partition in her work by Rahul Kumar,
MintLounge online paper review, India.
2020 The writing on the wall by Shubhalakshmi Shukla, ARTIndia magazine review, India.
2018 The seismic disorders of the senses, review of solo show by Ritta Datta, in The Telegraph
New Paper, India.
2018 Content defined in multiple mediums, review of solo show by curator and art witer
Soma Bhowmik for the Art and Deal magazine, India.
2018 Emerging Diversity review by curator and art witer Soma Bhowmik for the
Art and Deal magazine, India.
2017 Saying things in a new voice by Rita Datta, in The Telegraph New Paper, India.
​
​
​
​