Sharmila Samant

Sharmila Samant is a visual artist who works across a variety of mediums and forms including installations, performance, and photography. Globalization, identity and consumer culture are issues central to her works, which often involve working with activist groups and communities, particularly those who are marginalised addressing in turn ideas relating to exchange, accessibility and authorship.

In 1998 Sharmila co-founded and ran for several years the Mumbai based art collective Open Circle, which aimed to create a platform for meaningful dialogue among artists on an intercultural level, who were interested in engaging with contemporary sociopolitical issues via an integration of theory and practice.

In 2011 she was invited as an advisor to Art1st Foundation an organisation who work towards strengthening visual literacy, creative skills, cultural awareness and art pedagogy for children and educators. Since 2013, Sharmila sits on the academic council of the G5A Foundation for contemporary culture, Mumbai which supports contemporary art and culture, good governance and sustainability and from 2017 also sits on the advisory body of the culture initiative Arthshila, Patna.

Sharmila’s installations and video works have been part of many prominent exhibitions in biennales, museums, artist-led spaces and alternative venues in India and abroad. Original from Bombay, in 2013 she was invited to become a core faculty member at the Department of Art, Design and Performance of the Shiv Nadar University, where she continues to work and run the Master in Fine Arts programme.

Date of publication

Thu 22 Feb 2018