Arpita Akhanda, a multidisciplinary artist born in 1992, completed her BFA and MFA in Painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan in 2015 and 2017 respectively.
Akhanda’s two solo outings include শরীর | Körper: The Memory Collector, Kunstraum Aarau, Switzerland, 2021; and A Walkover Senses, JANUS Center for Visual and Performing Art, Kolkata, 2018. Some of her notable group exhibitions are KUCH KEHNA HAIH(a)unting: Futures of the South + Asian Artist, Gwangju, South Korea upcoming in 2026; Of the Land curated by Sobia Zaidi, Soil Art Gallery, Seattle, US, 2025;I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies curated by Bindi Vora, Autograph Gallery, London, 2025 – 26;Dialogues Across Time, Indian Museum x Basu Foundation, Kolkata, 2025; Imaging Arriving Departing, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, 2024; Polyphonies in Distance, Gallery Dotwalk, Delhi, 2023; Rivers and Roads: Meandering Stories of India, AAIE Center for Contemporary Art, Rome, 2022 – 23; Of Liminal Beings and Other Spaces, Emami Art, Kolkata, 2021; The Trifecta of Movement, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, 2020; and The Lay of the Land, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, 2020. Her works have been presented at many art fairs including Art Dusseldorf 2024, 2023; India Art Fair 2025, 2024, 2023; Art Mumbai 2023; AD Design Show 2022, Mumbai, Hub India; and Artissima International Fair of Contemporary Art at Torino, Italy, 2021.
She has performed at various national and international spaces including The Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium 2023, Sri Lanka; K21, Dusseldorf, Germany; Huis Marseille,
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2023; You cannot step into the same river twice, a performance by Arpita Akhanda, Cristina Flores Pescorán, and Rehema Chachage, as a part of Murmuring Matter: On the Cosmopolitics of Materials, Museum Night Maastricht, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Netherlands, 2023; Transitory Body: The Memory Collector at the opening
ceremony of the group exhibition Rivers and Roads: Meandering Stories of India, AAIE Center for Contemporary Art, Rome, 2022-23; 360 minutes of requiem at India Art Fair 2022, New Delhi; Transitory Body: The Memory Collector at Piramal Art Residency, Mumbai, 2019-20; In between the living and dead, Theertha International Performance Platform, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2019; and Creating to Destroying, Human Ecology and Art, 3rd Multidisciplinary Art Show, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2017. She has conducted several talks, presentations, workshops, and screenings, including the screening of The Living Scar at Lumière Cinéma, Maastricht NL, 2023; Understanding Body as Home, Talk and Workshop at University of the Arts London, UK, 2023; Memory Collector – a talk and workshop 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 2023.
She has been selected for the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Artist in Residency Program, Japan, 2026 and Singapore Art Museum Residency, Singapore, 2026. She participated in residency projects at the Kyoto Art Center, Japan, 2025 and Jester, Genk in Belgium, 2024; Hampi Arts Lab Residency, Karnataka in 2024; Jan Van Eyck Residency 2022-23; India Art Fair Artists in Residence program, 2022, New Delhi; Artist in Residence program 2021, Gästeatelier Krone, Aarau, Switzerland in association with Khoj Kolkata; and Piramal Art Residency Mumbai 2019-20.
Akhanda was awarded the 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize; BW Masterpiece 40 under 40 Awards, New Delhi, 2025; The Arts Family Emerging Artist Award - South Asia 2024 (2nd prize); the 2022-23 Prince Claus Seed Fund; Inlaks Fine Art Award 2022; Emerging Artist Award 2020 –21 by FICA and Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation 2021; State Award Fellowship in New Media from Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation, 2019; and the National Scholarship by CCRT Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India in Painting, 2016.
Her works are on display at the permanent collection show at K20 Museum Kunstsammlung, Nordrhein-Westfalen.
She is currently based in Santiniketan.
