Asia Arts Vanguard Award 2025

Anupam Sud (b. 1944. Hoshiarpur, Punjab.) studied at the College of Art, New Delhi in 1967 and in 1971-72 studied print-making at the Slade School, London, under a British Council scholarship. Working mainly with intaglio prints, Sud fuses her knowledge of different intaglio processes with lithography and screen-printing. Her zinc plates breathe with a life, now suggesting the contours of a sculpture, now hinting at the warmth of oils. But at all times restraint seems to be the keynote of her work. While her sympathies and concerns are often feminist, a recurring theme in her work is the common human predicament. Her subjects are often introspective and fatalistic - existing in a world that is falling apart. 
 
She acknowledges many influences: her father who had a love for bodybuilding, detective stories, Punjabi theatre, and her mother who appreciated classical music and read the Upanishads. She also grew as an artist under the guidance of Somnath Hore in Delhi, whose work she closely related to. 
 
More metaphorical than direct, her work is different from that of traditional printmakers in that she does not rely on the monochromatic quality, inherent in this medium, to make a statement. 
 
Anupam's work has evolved in phases. From the rather architectural forms, limbs and human figures in the mid 1970s to largely feminist subjects in the late 1970s. 
 
As one of the founder members of GROUP 8 (1968), Anupam, with her printmaker colleagues, worked through this association to promote and sustain printmaking as an independent, expressive art form. 
 
Her work has been widely exhibited and appreciated. Apart from over a dozen solo shows all over the world, she has participated in many group exhibitions in cities in the US, UK, Italy, Korea, Switzerland and other countries. She has won numerous national and international awards for her excellence in printmaking. She has also conducted workshops in Canada and Japan. 
 
She lives and works in New Delhi.

Asia Arts Pathbreaker Award 2025

Shilpa Gupta (b.1976) lives and works in Mumbai, India where she has studied sculpture at the Sir J. J. School of Fine Arts from 1992 to 1997.

 She has had solo shows at several international venues, most notably: Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Arnolfini, Bristol; Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem; Kiosk, Ghent; Barbican,  London; Dallas Contemporary; the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Bielefelder Kunstverein; land Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi. In 2021, MuHKA in Antwerp organized a comprehensive survey show of Shilpa’s work.

Shilpa has participated in several biennials, such as: 58th Venice Biennale (2019, Kochi Muziris Biennale (2018), Gothenburg Biennial (2017), Berlin Biennale (2014),  New Museum Triennial (2009); Sharjah Biennial (2013), Lyon Biennale (2009), Gwangju Biennale (2008), Yokohama Triennale (2008), and Liverpool Biennial (2006).

Her work is in the collection of Tate, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, Mori Museum, M+ Museum, Louisiana Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Deutsche Bank, Daimler Chrysler, Bristol Art Museum, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Asia Society, ZKM, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Fonds National d’Art Contemporain – France, KOC Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Canada, FRAC (France Regional Art Collection), Voorlinden Museum, Art Now, Cincinnati Art Museum, Kiran Nadar Museum, Jameel Arts Center and Devi Art Foundation amongst others.

In 2024, she opened a major solo at Centro Botín in Santander, Spain curated by Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz and her solo curated by Ruth Estévez​​ travels from Amant Art Center to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in US.

Asia Arts Future (India) Award 2025

Jayeeta Chatterjee, born in 1995 in West Bengal, India, is an artist with a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Her artistic journey has been marked by several exhibitions, including her 2024 solo exhibition ‘An Eye Inside’ at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, and the 2023 group exhibition ‘Continuum’ at Chemould Colab, Mumbai. Chatterjee’s work has been part of Immerse exhibition and residency in Mumbai, she was also part of Chemould Colab and Khoj Peers residency. She has also been honored at the Haugesund International Festival of Relief Printing in Norway.

Chatterjee’s practice is deeply influenced by her suburban upbringing and is characterized by a blend of printmaking, textiles, and embroidery. Her work explores the nuanced interplay between women’s external environments and their inner worlds, particularly within domestic spaces. Central to her art is the traditional Nakshi Kantha embroidery of Bengal, which she revitalizes with a contemporary twist by integrating it with woodcut print. This fusion allows her to weave the stories of middle-class homemakers, reflecting the socio-economic and cultural narratives of the region. Her focal point therefore resides in unveiling the often overlooked yet profoundly significant identity making of one’s self. Currently based in Bangalore, India, Chatterjee continues to push the boundaries of printmaking and offering a fresh perspective on the traditional arts- crafts of her homeland.

Asia Arts Future (South Asia) Award 2025

Karachi  LaJamia was founded in 2015 by artists  Shahana Rajani and Zahra Malkani as a nomadic space moving outside the institution to explore new radical pedagogies and art practices. They have facilitated a series of site-specific courses and collaborative research projects to explore the intersections of militarism, climate crisis, indigenous dispossession, and knowledge production in Karachi. Their courses are developed in close collaboration with local organisations and activists to build solidarity with ongoing struggles around land, water and development in the city.

From the destruction of ecologies to the militarisation of education, they have experimented with a range of research and pedagogical methods for collective study as a mode of connection. With an emphasis on centering indigenous knowledges and genealogies of resistance, their projects have resulted in experimental publications, video works, scholarly texts, browser- based artwork, syllabi and workbooks, and an expansive archive of fieldwork.  

Karachi  LaJamia has presented in exhibitions at Colomboscope, Sri Lanka (2024), Khoj Studios, India (2024), Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, UK (2023), SAVVY Contemporary, Germany (2022), Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden (2020), Ishara Art Foundation, UAE (2019), and Gandhara Art Gallery, Pakistan (2018) among others.

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