Join acclaimed visual artist Nilima Sheikh for a conversation with Rattanamol Singh Johal about her artistic practice and engagement with traditional Indian art forms and literary sources. The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Nilima Sheikh’s work focuses on displacement, loss, longing, violence, the perception of tradition and ideas of femininity. Her artworks, using tempera on handmade paper or canvas, are influenced by Persian, Central Asian, Far Eastern, pre-Renaissance European and North Indian schools of painting. Her visual and textual layering, informed by a mix of lore and history, offers glimpses into multiple worlds, and a commitment to feminist realities.

Nilima Sheikh was born in New Delhi, India in 1945. After graduating in History from Delhi University, she studied Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda between 1965 and 1971 under the mentorship of Professor KG Subramanyan. Her work explores historical art forms through the lens of personal subjectivities, using a range of visual and literary sources. Working at different scales and on varied surfaces, her contemporary practice critically engages a wide range of visual methods, materials and styles.

Sheikh's solo exhibition 'Fractured Skies' at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York will be on view from September 27, 2026 through June 13, 2027. Recent exhibitions include 'The Imaginary Institution of India' at the Barbican Centre in London (2024), the Sharjah Biennial 15 titled 'Thinking Historically in the Present' (2023), the Dhaka Art Summit (2020), the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2018), Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens (2017), and 'Each night put Kashmir in your dreams' at the Art Institute of Chicago (2014). Sheikh's writings have been published widely, she has created scenography for theatre, and also illustrated books for children.

This event is made possible by the Shireen and Afzal Ahmad South Asian Arts Programming Fund.