Arpita Singh

Born in 1937 in Kolkata, Arpita Singh graduated with a diploma in fine arts from Delhi Polytechnic. She is described as a figurative artist and a modernist, whose work continues to be inspired by traditional Indian art forms and aesthetics like miniaturist painting and different forms of folk art. Concerned with the experiences and movements of women in her country and the world at large, Singh paints a range of emotions and connections that she exchanges with these subjects, providing a topographical view of the ongoing communication she maintains with them.

Singh’s work has been celebrated and featured regularly in shows held in India and internationally, including a retrospective exhibition at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, in 2019, where Singh presented a stellar body of works reflecting a lifetime of practice, which was met with stupendous critical acclaim. She has also participated in important institutional shows at the MK Gallery, UK (2023); Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2022); Asia Society Triennale (2020–21); the Gwangju Biennale (2021); the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2021); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2021); Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2014, 2013, 2011); Museo Nacional de Centro Reina Sofia, Madrid (2013); the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, USA (2013); Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2014, 2013, 2011); Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan (2012); the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai (2012); Centre of International Modern Art, Kolkata (2011, 2010, 2008); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2009); and Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (2007).

Singh has won several awards throughout her career, including the Parishad Samman from the Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi, in 1991; the Kalidas Samman, Bhopal, in 1991; and the Padma Bhushan in 2011. She was awarded a fellowship at Lalit Kala Akademi in 2014.

The artist lives and works in New Delhi, India.