Varunika Saraf’s paintings draw you in with their vibrant splashes of colour, only to unnerve you with the details veiled underneath. She speaks to Sarmaya about her process, politics and perennial love for the miniature art tradition
This composition is part of Zarina Hashmi’s (1937-2020) series of woodcut prints. Delhi III is part of Zarina Hashmi’s celebrated Delhi series. This striking woodcut shows the river Yamuna, a lifeline of her beloved city. The artist drew the river from memory, fashioning it as geographic border. Witness to the horrors of the India-Pakistan partition… Read more »
Faced with the ravages of the global pandemic, we’re all seeking comfort, beauty and a way to strengthen that inner light no storm can disturb. ‘Shifting Selves’ offers the balm of art and history as it documents this journey inward
Powerful pieces of imagery from personal albums are setting down in history what is otherwise undocumented and therefore unacknowledged, acting as the nuanced subtext that is drastically missing from our public rhetoric. We talk to the curators of these intimate archives
Mithila artist Pushpa Kumari’s aesthetic genius combines the traditional with the contemporary, and the personal with the political
How a matriarchal art practice emerged in response to conservatism and the patriarchy. Locating the divine as well as the human in Madhubani art
The paintings of artist Arpita Singh are primarily satirical. Yet, they are infused with emotion, creating a bridge between allegory and direct expression. She is a master of visual storytelling, and in her stories she brings forward the psychological impacts of two major oppressions in the world: patriarchy and systemic violence through wars. The artist… Read more »
Five unputdownable reads that bring all those boring history classes to life with warmth, spirit and great invention
A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives takes the establishment of a museum dedicated to women’s history in Washington D.C. one step closer to reality. The U.S., which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its women’s suffrage movement will now need its Senate to approve the bill as well.
Shakuntala Kulkarni addresses certain pressing feminist issues through her 2007 series of women-centric paintings. The artist is alluding to the ability of women to free themselves from the shackles of society and its expectations. In Kulkarni’s world as depicted in this series, woman are powerful warriors in charge of their own destiny. Shakuntala Kulkarni started… Read more »
Shakuntala Kulkarni addresses certain pressing feminist issues through her 2007 series of women-centric paintings. Here, the central figure is a large voluptuous woman in a confident stance. The artist is taking a stab at body dysmorphia and the pressures that women face to conform physically to societal norms. She represents women in positions of power… Read more »
To celebrate #InternationalWomensDay, we dedicated March 2019 to the most gifted women artists represented in the Sarmaya collection. We celebrated their often-unsung genius by helping others discover it through the sprawling warrens of Wikipedia. Sarmaya participated in an international campaign by Art+Feminism to get more women editing and featuring on the internet’s favourite reference guide. Sarmaya’s team… Read more »