Arpita Akhanda, born in 1992, completed her B.F.A & M.F.A in painting from Kala Bhavana,
Visva Bharati University, 2015 & 2017. She has been 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.
Akhanda 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; Transitory Body: The Memory Collector at the opening
ceremony of the group exhibition Rivers and Roads: Meandering Stories of India, at 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, Srilanka, 2019; Creating to Destroying, Human Ecology and Art, 3rd Multidisciplinary Art show, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2017.
Akhanda’s two solo outings include ‘শরীর|Körper: The Memory Collector, Kunstraum
Aarau, Switzerland 2021; A Walkover Senses, solo show at JANUS Center for Visual and
Performing Art, Kolkata, 2018. She has participated in many art fairs, including Art Dusseldorf 2024, 2023; India Art Fair 2024, 2023; Art Mumbai 2023. Some of her notable group exhibitions include Rivers and Roads: Meandering Stories of India, at AAIE Center for Contemporary Art, Rome 2022 – 23; 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, 2023; AD Design show 2022 in Mumbai, Hub India, Artissima International Fair of Contemporary Art at Torino, Italy, in 2021; Of Liminal Beings and other spaces, Emami Art gallery, Kolkata 2021; The Trifecta of Movement, Exhibit 320, New Delhi, 2020; The Lay of the Land, Exhibit320, New Delhi.
Arpita Akhanda is a recipient of the 2022-23- Prince Claus Seed Fund and the Jan Van Eyck Residency 2022-23, Netherlands. She was part of India Art Fair Artist in Residence program 2022, New Delhi; Artist in Residence program 2021 Gästeatelier Krone, Aarau, Switzerland, in association with Khoj Kolkata; Inlaks Fine Art Award 2022, Emerging Artist Award 2020, FICA and Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation 2021; Piramal Art Residency Mumbai2019-20; State Award Fellowship in New Media from Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation, 2019 and is also a recipient of National Scholarship by CCRT Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India in Painting 2016. Akhanda has conducted several talks, presentations, workshops, and screenings, including the screening of The Living Scar as part of the Transitions, Special program: selected works from the Jan van Eyck Academie screened at Lumière Cinéma, Maastricht NL; 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; Memory collector, Talk and Workshop as a part of Skillz Week in the Illustration programme at Camberwell College of Arts, UK; The Living Scar & The Last Leap screened at Young Collectors Hub at Bikaner House, as a part of India Art Fair (IFA), Delhi.
Her works are on view at the permanent collection show at K20 Museum Kunstsammlung, Nordrhein-Westfalen. She recently completed her residency projects at Jester, Genk in Belgium and the Hampi Arts Lab Residency at Hampi, Karnataka.
She is currently based in Kyoto, Japan, as part of the residency program at the Kyoto Art Center.