Update: Biennials Connect Studio Visits in India
Debashish Paul, Body as a Landscape Body in a Landscape, Single-Channel Video, 2021/22. Courtesy: Emami Art
In January we announced that we had been awarded a Biennial’s Connect grant by the British Council to support us to develop new relationships with artists based in India.
With the support of our Kolkata-based partners Emami Art we have now completed a programme of professional development focused studio visits where we got to know the practices, interests and ambitions of some tremendously talented artists.
In this project update we’re pleased to introduce the artists that we’ve met to our audiences, all of them have unique insights to share and over the coming months we’ll be announcing which of these artists we will be working with more closely!
Arpita was brought up in a family of artists who migrated from Bangladesh during the partition and moved through many locations in India before settling in Cuttack, Odisha and she is currently based in Santiniketan. Her practice is firmly rooted in research and develops interdisciplinary lines of enquiry on the meaning of body, belonging, home and migration and she often works with photography, performance and weaving. She was recently awarded the 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize and has exhibited at K21 (Dusseldorf, Germany) and at Huis Marseille (Amsterdam, Netherlands).
Suman is a self-taught artist, primarily working with abstract painting, drawing and collage who is based in Kolkata, West Bengal. He has spent long periods of time working odd jobs including working at his father’s paan shop, at a block printing workshop, and in homoeopathy stores. These diverse experiences are integral to his artistic narrative, influencing his thoughts and finding resonance in his work. He has recently exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts (Kolkata, India) and the India Habitat Centre (New Delhi, India).
Janhavi is a deaf artist working with acoustics through woodcut printmaking and experimental installations composed of animation, sound, performance, and vibratory material. She is based between Santiniketan (India) and Chicago (USA) and has recently completed a residency at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf (Delavan, USA). Her recent exhibitions include the Ground Floor Biennial (Chicago, USA) and she made a solo presentation at the India Art Fair (New Delhi, India) with Emami Art in 2024.
Debashish lives and works in Varanasi (India) and he makes performance, video, drawings, paintings, sculpture and photography that address questions of sexuality and identity. His work explores the possibilities for repair, reconciliation, and consolation with a meaningful sense of identity and spirituality that is devised through dialogues with the self, society and nature. Debashish has exhibited and performed with organisations including the Chennai Photo Biennale (Chennai, India), the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Kochi, India) and he completed the Cite internationale des arts, Institut Francais Residency (Paris, France) supported by Prameya Art Foundation and the French Institute in India.
Prasanta’s multi-dimensional practice includes painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and photography bringing together wide ranging cross-cultural influences including his small town upbringing and love for his ancestral village of Chaughari (Odisha, India) as well as watching and assisting his father make survey maps and technical experience gained from his initial training in electrical engineering. Prasanta exhibitions include the Kochi Muziris Biennale (Kochi, India), Artissima International Art Fair (Torino, Italy) and the Busan International Art Fair (Busan, South Korea).
Further information on this project will be available soon and we excited to share that we will be posting a selection of works by all of these artists on instagram to further support and promote their practices!
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This project is supported by the British Council.
by Ryan Hughes