Arpita Akhanda

Arpita Akhanda was born (in 1992) and brought up in a family of artists who migrated from Bangladesh during the partition of India and moved through many locations in India before settling in Cuttack, Odisha. Arpita completed her B.F.A & M.F.A in painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, 2015 & 2017. Presently she works across mediums that include paper weavings, performance, installation, drawing, and video and has been part of several national & international exhibitions.

Akhanda, has performed at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K21 Museum (Germany), Jan Van Eyck Academie (Netherlands), AAIE Center for Contemporary Art & Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma (Italy), Teertha International Performance Platform (Sri Lanka) and Chittagong Art College (Bangladesh). She has participated in the Jan Van Eyck Residency in Maastricht, Netherlands (2022-23), Inlaks Fine Art Award Residency (2022), India Art Fair's residency program (2022), Gastatelier Krone Aarau's residency program in Switzerland (2021), and Piramal Art Residency (2019-20).

In addition, Akhanda has received the The Arts Family Emerging Artist Award  -South Asia(3rd Edition), London, Second Place Winner (2024), MASH Young Artists’ Award, India (2023), Prince Claus Seed Award, from Prince Claus Fund, Netherlands (2022), Inlaks Fine Art Award (2022), the Emerging Artist Award Extended Support Platform from FICA and Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation (2020), State Award Fellowship in New Media from Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation (2019), and National Scholarship by CCRT Ministry of Culture of India in Painting (2016). She lives and works in Santiniketan, West Bengal.

Her art works are in collections of various major private collections, including Museum Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K21, Dusseldorf, Germany; Piramal Foundation, Maharashtra, India ; Emami Group, Kolkata, India.