Arpita Akhanda, born (1992) and 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, she completed her B.F.A & M.F.A in painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, 2015 & 2017.
Akhanda has performed in various international art 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 group exhibition Rivers and Roads: Meandering Stories of India, curated by Valeria Contarino, Pranitha Joseph and Zhu Yaning 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 2019-20, Maharashtra. Some of her notable group exhibitions include Art Dusseldorf 2023; India Art Fair 2023; Rivers and Roads: Meandering Stories of India, at AAIE Center for Contemporary Art, Rome (2022 – 23); AD Design show 2022 in Mumbai, Hub India, Artissima International Fair of Contemporary Art at Torino, Italy, in 2021; Körper: The memory collector, Kunstraum Aarau, Switzerland; Of Liminal Beings and other spaces, curated by Ushmita Sahu, Emami Art gallery, Kolkata; The Trifecta of Movement at Exhibit 320, New Delhi; The Lay of the Land, Exhibit320, New Delhi.
Arpita Akhanda is a recipient of the 2022-23- Prince Claus Seed Fund. She has also been selected for 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; and Piramal Art Residency 2019-20, Mumbai; Inlaks Fine Art Award 2022, Emerging Artist Award 2020, FICA and Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation 2021; 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 jagdip@indiacontemporary.com, 2016.
Akhanda has conducted several talks, presentation, workshop, screenings including the screening of The Living Scar as part of the Transitions, Special program: selected works from the Jan van Eyck Academie Lumière 4 (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.
Some of her works belong to major museums, private collections and art foundations, including Museum Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K21, Piramal Foundation and Emami Group.
She is currently based in Santiniketan, India.