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.
Her works are on view at the permanent collection show at K20 Museum Kunstsammlung, Nordrhein-Westfalen. She recently completed her residency projects at the Kyoto Art Center, Japan, 2025; Jester, Genk in Belgium in 2024 and the Hampi Arts Lab Residency, Karnataka in 2024.
Akhanda is the winner of the 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize.
She is currently based in Santiniketan.