Akhikesh was born in 1956 in Indore, where his father was a drawing teacher and the first Gold medalist from Madhya Pradesh. In his house he had an atmosphere of painting, music and medicine since childhood. Akhilesh went on to earn a Diploma in Fine Arts at Indore School of arts. He belongs to the community of artists who are rooted in traditions and have evolved a distinc tive contemporary language in response to global experiences. Akhilesh later moved to Textile Designing and shifted base to Bhopal.

He is a master of colours and his paintings appear to resonate with abstract emotions. The way he uses lines in equation to space lend a certain aesthetics to his work. He held his first solo show at the age of 20, with a 104 feet long drawing in 1976. Since then he has had 47 solo shows to his credit at Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Indore, Bhopal, Chennai, Hyderabad, Benares, Bangalore, Baroda, Singapore, California, Tokyo/Japan, Washington, New York, London, France, Netherlands, Moscow and many other cities.

He has been awarded Artists in Residency from the Institute of Advance studies Nantes France and Swedish writers association, Sweden; he went to Austria on invitation for Artist-in-residence. He has received several prestigious awards and has also curated shows and set up museums like the Tribal, Folk and Contemporary art of Malwa at Lal Baugh Palace, Indore.

Born in Kerala in 1963, Bose Krishnamachari studied at Sir J.J. School of Art (1986-1991), Mumbai and completed his Masters in Visual Art Theory and Practice from Goldsmiths College, University of London (1999-2000). His artistic and curatorial practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, design, installation and architecture. Bose has exhibited in important solo and group exhibitions around the world including Bombay Maximum City, Lille 3000, Lille, curated by Caroline Naphegyi (2006), Gateway Bombay at the Peabody Essex Museum (2007), India Art Now: Spazio Oberdan, Milan (2007), Indian Highway at the Serpentine Gallery (2009), the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark (2010), the Lyon Contemporary Art Museum, the Fondazione MAXXI, Rome (2011), among others.

Bose is an avid art collector and known for finding and promoting emerging young artistic talent. He has been curator at international art events like 1st Yinchuan Biennale, China, etc. Some of his memorable curated shows include The Bombay Boys (2004), New Delhi; Double-Enders, A travelling exhibition shown at Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Kochi (2005), AF-FAIR, 1X1 Contemporary and 1X1 Gallery, Dubai (2008). He was also the guest curator at the Indian pavilion of ARCO-Madrid (2009). He conceptualised a travelling project, LaVA (Laboratory of Audio Visual Arts) (2007-2011). Krishnamachari created Gallery BMB in Mumbai (2009) with a vision to bring the best international contemporary art to India. He has been the recipient of prestigious awards, including the Mid America Arts Alliance Award in 1996, the Charles Wallace India Trust Award in 1999 and felicitated in 2009 with the Lifetime Fellow of Kerala Lalit Kala Akademi.

He is the Artistic Director and Co-Curator of The Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012, Director of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014 and President of the Kochi Biennale Foundation

Born in New Delhi, Kanchan completed her first year in painting from Weisensee Kunst Hochschule, Berlin, Germany. Thereafter she pursuedher B.F.A in Paintingand Printmaking from College of Art, New Delhi. She was also a guest student in printmaking at the College of Art, Santiago, Chile. Kanchan later became a Research Fellow at the College of Art, New Delhi. In 1993, she received a British Council Grant to visit art institutions and study contemporary art trends in London. She has held solo shows at private galleries in India, Japan, Germany, Australia, Kathmandu and International Centre, New Delhi.

Her work has been included in International Print Triennales- Ljubljana, Frenchen, Germany, Bristol, UK, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, Sarcelles, France; Jaipur Art Summit; Brandeis and Mills University, USA; and many private galleries and museums all over India and the world. She has shown in important showcases of the Art Fair, New Delhi; National gallery, Lalit Kala Akademi and NGMA, New Delhi.

She has attended Art camps, workshops and residencies all over India and countries like UK, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, China, Nepal and Singapore and has been a member of Indian Printmakers Guild. She has organised several art shows and was on the judging panel at Inlaks and Charles Wallace. She was awarded the International Print Biennale Award, Radford, UK; Sahitya Kala Award; Womens award-AIFACS and `Women Achiever` by Cancer Patients Association; BC Sanyal Award for Best Teacher by Delhi Collage of Art.

This Bangalore-based artist is a Shantiniketan alumnus (BFA and MFA), an academician who has taught at various places including CEPT, NIFT, AVANI and a contemporary Indian artist with a practice portfolio cutting across performance art, printmaking, painting, theatre. He is a professional who draws upon his deep understanding across cultural practices, including music and film, as well as digital art and whose works are in collections of well-known individual and institutional art collectors.

As an academician, he has been associated with School of Architecture and School of Interior Design, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, followed by NIFT, Bangalore and Chennai. In 2006, he started practicing art as a full time career. He continued academic interests intermittently - by undertaking workshops and selected modules as consulting faculty. Currently, he is a professor at AVANI Institute of Design, Kozhikode, Kerala. His subjects include visual studies, elements of design (theory of design), visualization and representation, history of art and culture, etc.

He has been invited as scholar in residence for Kerala Government, in their fine arts colleges and by Melbourne University as artist in residence programme. He was awarded by Department of Culture, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India in 93-95, 97-99. He has participated in numerous national and international group exhibitions, has held eight solo shows and continues to extend his practice through workshops, residencies, performances and exhibitions, often using his art as a tool for social and cultural awareness

Paresh Maity was born in 1965 in Tamluk - a small town in West Bengal with a remarkable heritage of terracotta art. Early on, he started painting watercolours of river scenes and then oil paintings thereafter. He mastered the technique of oil painting at Government College of Art, Kolkata. He later moved to Delhi to join the Delhi College of Art.

Paresh's experimental personality has inspired him to explore diverse mediums – drawings, watercolours, oils, mixed media, installation and sculptures, photography and filmmaking. The uniqueness of his work lies in his rediscovering the charm of the different corners of India and other nations he travels to, in his paintings. Rajasthan has been the ‘human’ inspiration behind his work; Shantiniketan the ‘spirituality of mind, body and soul’; in his series on Kerala he captured its pristine colours; also the serene ghats of Varanasi and the Himalayan heights of Himachal Pradesh. He has done a series of works on destinations across the seas capturing London, Venice, China and Japan. With over 70 solo exhibitions in India and abroad to his credit, and numerous invited showcases and participations, Paresh received the Padma Shri in 2014, Government of India’s fourth-highest civilian award.

His works are in the collection at British Museum in London, Rubin Museum, New York, Commonwealth Institute, London, the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata, Tata Steel., ITC, Oberoi Group of Hotels, Leela Hotels, RPG, Birla Group, Vatican Embassy, and many other institutions and private collections all over the world.

Chennai based contemporary visual artist Parvathi Nayar is known for her multidisciplinary art, centred on complex drawing practices, videos, installations and photography. Her black-and-white graphite drawings are multifaceted works that look at the internal/intimate spaces within our bodies and the external/public spaces in which we live, often through the prism of science and technology. Parvathi’s art talks about different engagements with our environment and the philosophies of inhabiting them.

Solos include Atlas of Re-Imaginings (2018, Gallery Veda, Chennai), Haunted by Waters (2017, Dakshinachitra Museum, Chennai), Dissonant Images: Drawing in Time, (2016, New Delhi), The Ambiguity of Landscapes (2014, Chennai), I sing the body electric (2008, Mumbai), Win Lose Draw (2007, Singapore) Drawing is a Verb (Singapore, 2006) journey (1998, Jakarta).

Installations, including those in public spaces, are Invite/Refuse at the Indo- German DAMned Art project curated by Florian Matzner and Ravi Agarwal (2018), Reflecting (on) The Inhabited Crossroads as part of The Hashtag #Collective (Kochi, 2016/17). She pioneered the form of “drawn sculpture” as in the seminal 20-foot high drawing A Story of Flight, Jai He art programme, T2 Terminal, Mumbai international airport. She presented an installation of drawings and sound titled The Fluidity of Horizons at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014/15. Group shows include Spirit and Matter (Hyderabad, 2018), Against Nature (2016, Kochi), L’Attrape Feu (2016, France), To Let the World In (2012, Art Chennai), Af-fair (2008, Dubai), Drawing Out Conversations (2008, Singapore), Nature Born (2006, Indonesia), popularart (2005, Nehru Centre London) among others.

S G Vasudev was born in Mysore (Karnataka) in 1941. He was awarded a National Scholarship by the Government of India in 1964, while he was a student of the Government College of Art, Madras. Vasudev is a founder-member of the Cholamandal Artists’ Village on the outskirts of Madras where he lived and worked till 1988, later moving to Bangalore.

Vasudev works in various mediums (drawings, paintings, reliefs in copper, tapestries in silk and murals). He became well-known for his “Vriksha” (Tree of Life) series, which evolved over nearly a decade, turning into the Tree of Life and Death in the latter half of the 1980s. He explored the theme of “Maithuna” (Act of Love) and later explores “Humanscapes” and “Earthscapes”. The tree is visible in the series titled “Theatre of Life” and “Rhapsody”.

Vasudev has participated in numerous important group exhibitions in India and abroad (including the Triennale India, The Paris Biennale, The Havana Biennale, India’s National Gallery of Modern Art show in Washington, and The Festival of India in Tokyo among others. He has held solo exhibitions in different parts of India and the world (including USA, England and Germany). He has won recognition for his work through several awards, including those instituted by India’s National Academy of Art, the State Academies of Art in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Government of Karnataka presented him with the Rajyotsava Award in 1994 and a prestigious Venkatappa Award in 2003.

Vasudev has been on the Executive Board of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. He served as Director for the International Art Camp organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, during the 1997 Triennale India. He was a member of the advisory committee of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore.

Born 1962, Osaka, Japan, Yuriko Lochan is a Japanese artist living in India (since 1987) and follows her creative pursuits in both the countries. She has graduated and holds a master’s degree in painting from Kyoto City University of Arts, one of the most distinguished fine art institutions of Japan.

She has been holding her solo exhibitions in India as well as in Japan and has participated in a large number of group shows in India, besides attending artist camps held both in India as well as abroad. Her works are deeply enriched by experiencing two different cultures and are the coherence of two qualities; India as the primal source of human culture, and Japan as the refined sensibilities of her origin. Her style reveals a meditative exploration through colour and form, elaborating on ones relationship with the universe.

Since 2011, she has been holding demonstrations/workshops and organizing exhibitions of the medium of Suiboku (Ink drawing by natural material) as an expression of the cultural ethos of the East at several institutions and schools in India and Japan. In 2016, she held several workshops of Shasei sketching and watercolour painting for the children studies in open schools and the children from the underprivileged sections of the society.

She has contributed to several Japanese journals on Indian Art and written a series of essays based on her experiences in India.

Arun Kumar H G completed his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. His solo shows include: CON-STRUCTION at O P Jindal School of Liberal Arts, Sonepat, and Gallery Espace, New Delhi, 2018; In-site, Aicon Gallery New York, 2018; Seed of Reckoning Mumbai Art Room, Mumbai, 2012; Tract, Nature Morte, New Delhi, 2010; Feed, Nature Morte, New Delhi, Sakshi Gallery Mumbai 2006. Arunkumar’s works reveal multi-layered associations often reflecting on contemporary market forces, the acts of production and consumption and the haphazard disposal of mass-produced goods.

He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in India and abroad, most importantly: 'Embrace Our Rivers' Goethe-Institute / Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai, 2018; Sculpture by The Sea, Sculpture Biennial Aarhus Denmark, 2015; The Eye and The Mind: New Interventions in Contemporary Indian Art, part of Festival of India in China, 2015 (sponsored by the National Gallery of Modern Art). Beyond Limits at San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, 2014; Aesthetic Bind Citizen Artist: Forms of Address, Chemould, Mumbai, 2013; Art and Activism in India Since 1989, The SAHMAT Collective, Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago 2013, etc. Additionally, he has participated in several national and international artists’ residencies, some of which include: Art Omi international Artist Residency, New York, 2011; Artist in Residency, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 2007 & 2002; and others.

In 2014, he set up the Centre for Knowledge and Environment (www.saracentre.org) in the Western Ghats region of Karnataka, India.

Dimpy Menon became the first Indian sculptor to win the Lorenzo il Magnifico Bronze medal at the Florence Biennale, 2015. A graduate of the School of Art, Chennai (1986) she has had over 50 shows in India and abroad.

When the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai re-opened its lobby after the terror attacks of 26/11 a prominent change there was a seven-foot bronze sculpture by Dimpy Menon. New York’s Architectural Digest has called Dimpy one of the “biggest contemporary artists in India.”

Dimpy’s works have been specially commissioned by some of the largest hotel chains and corporate houses, including The Oberoi, The Leela, The Marriott, The Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, TVS, Indo-Us Venture, General Electric, National Semiconductor, G & N Associates, UKN, Total Environment, VR Bengaluru. She is currently working on commissions for Delhi and Switzerland. Writing about her work, World Sculpture magazine said, “Menon is a natural… she captures the graceful, acrobatic movements of the human body with rare sensitivity.”

Open magazine pointed out that “Menon’s figures seem to defy the laws of physics… and yet, the muscled human bodies excite the viewers…” Dimpy Menon has been showing regularly at the India Art Fair. In 2017 she gave a TEDx Talk on ‘Moment in movement’. Her recent exhibitions have been in London, Delhi and Gurgaon.

Prof. Pankaj Panwar, who is a from Kala Bhavana, Shantiniketan, was born in 1961, Lucknow. A graduate in Fine Arts from Visva- Bharati; post graduate from M.S University, Baroda and post-experience diploma holder in sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London.

Mr Panwar received various scholarships, fellowships and awards including Henry Moore Fellowship, U.K, Charles Wallace Grant, U.K, French Government Scholarship, Junior Research Fellowship & National Scholarship, Govt. of India. Numora Sculpture Award, London, National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, Govt. of India and All India Award, State Academy, Lucknow.

He has participated in several curated exhibitions, workshops and symposiums in India and abroad; including Silk-root Art Exhibition, India Festival in China Exhibition, India-Italy Contemporary Art Exhibition, Exhibition of Indian Contemporary Art in Austria, etc; and symposiums in Turkey, U.K, Thailand, Dhaka, China, and India.

Mr. Panwar holds many honorary positions, such as, a trustee member, KMOMA (Kolkata Museum of Modern Art), advisory member, CIMA (Centre of International Modern Art) Awards, Kolkata, member of the advisory board, National Akademy of Arts, New Delhi, member of the advisory board,Charukala (Department of Visual Arts, Govt. of West Bengal) and so on.

At present Mr. Panwar is a professor at Dept. of Sculpture, Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan. He lives and works there.

Ved Prakash Gupta, born in 1975, received his Bachelor’s degree (Gold) in Sculpture from MSU, Baroda in 2004 and in 2006 completed his Master’s degree from the same institute. Gupta’s sculptural works in fiberglass use a tangible language to convey what the artist thinks of the socio-economic hierarchies prevalent in society today.

He has had three solo shows- Kashi Art Gallery (Fort Kochi) – 2007, ‘Arrested Moment’ Gallery Threshold (New Delhi)- 2008, ‘Everybody Says We Are Fine’ – Saffron (Mumbai) and Gallery Threshold (New Delhi) – 2010; Solo projects – ‘Best of Discovery, (Curatorial) ShContemporary Art Fair, Shanghai.-2008, Al Bastika Art Fair, (Curatorial outdoor) Dubai. UAE- 2009, India Art Summit-2009, India Art Fair – 2011, all presented by Gallery Threshold; Important group shows include - ‘Urgent: 10 ml of Contemporary Needed’ By FICA, Delhi-2008, ‘Through Other Eyes’ Herbert Art Gallery Museum, Coventry, UK – 2009, ‘A New Vanguard’ The Guild &Saffron Art, New York- 2009, Art Taipai, Taiwan, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai – 2009, Alternate to Another, The Guild, New York, USA -2010, Miniscule Marvel - Gallery BMB, Mumbai – 2011, The Baroda March, Mumbai – 2012, Remembering Lessing, FFA, MSU, Baroda – 2013. In 2007, he was honored with Kashi Award and H K Kejriwal Award, 2008 - selected by curators of Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, for – Best of Discovery, South Asia Pacific Curatorial Award, 2009 - Al Bastika Art Fair, Dubai. UAE.

He served as adjunct faculty in Department of Sculpture, MSU, Baroda between2011-13. Ved Gupta lives and works in Baroda.

Abandoning a career in commercial communication for a more soul-fulfilling occupation, Aditi Saraogi was introduced to clay through a studio potter in Kolkata. Thereafter, wanting more guidance, she trained under Mansimran Singh in Andretta Pottery, Himachal Pradesh and later honed her skills under Ray Meeker in Puducherry. Still wanting to learn more, Aditi became the artist-in-residence with Isabelle Roux in Beaucens, France and in the Yueji Kiln International Ceramic Art Centre in Dehua, China and later with Sandra Black, Fremantle, Australia.

Aditi believes in enjoying life and all that it has to offer. So she takes every opportunity to explore different places and situations, various cultures, to walk along the road less travelled and thus to learn in the process; pausing sometimes to smell the flowers or to watch the light cast by the evening sun.

She has been part of numerous shows and residencies, nationally and internationally. Her works are part of private collectors in India and in the global markets. Aditi is also one of the pioneers behind AFSA - Fired Art in Kolkata and has curated exhibitions and residencies for Gallery Sanskriti, Kolkata; Art Ichol Maihar and Delhi Blue Pottery Trust, New Delhi.

Arun has a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Benaras Hindu University, 1992-96 in Pottery & Ceramics. He has worked as a ceramic instructor at Sanskriti Kendra, Delhi, Blue Ceramics Centre at Anandgram, Delhi, since 2006. He is also a guest lecturer for Ceramics at IICD, Jaipur, Rajasthan since 2012. Arun has also been an assistant studio potter with the International famed ceramist Mr P R Daroz, Ayanagar Studio, New Delhi in 2000-2001. He has also been a freelancer and an instructor at Rashtriya Lalit Kala Academy and Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata, respectively. His work blends a deep interest in colour and form with exploration of the technicalities of the ceramic medium.

Some of the important group exhibitions he has participated include - “Medley in ceramics – 4” 2014; group exhibition at “The Renaissance – Art Studio” Pune 2012 “Tiles Forever” group exhibition at Habitat Centre, New Delhi; “Clay works” group exhibition at Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, 2012; Journey through Clay, 50 years of Contemporary Studio Ceramics, group exhibition, Habitat Centre curated by Delhi Blue Pottery Trust, New Delhi, 2011; Indo- Australia Pottery Exhibition curated by Delhi Blue Pottery Trust, New Delhi, 2010; MAATI, ‘Exploration in Terracotta’, a group show by Indian and International Artists organized by Delhi Blue Pottery at India Habitat Centre, Delhi, February, 2009; Harmony show curated by Tina Ambani, Mumbai, 2008 among others.

Born in 1984, Neha Gawand Pullarwar is a Mumbaibased artist, who works in ceramics.

She completed a Post-Graduation Diploma in Museology and Conservation from The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formally known as The Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai. B.F.A. (Ceramics), from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai (2006) and advanced study in ceramics under Ray Meekar and Deborah Smith at the Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry (2009). She also passed Cambridge International Education in Teaching and Learning with distinction (2016).

Neha also enjoys expressing her conceptual ideas by integrating with other suitable mediums where necessary. Her first solo exhibition of ceramic sculptures ‘my-r-me-d-rome’ was in 2012 followed by many group exhibitions in India. In her professional career, spanning 10 years, she has expertise in wood firing; smoke firing, reduction firing, and other techniques. She has a well-developed ceramic studio in Alibaug where she pursues her Art practice.

Neha has been awarded an Indo-Swiss scholarship by Jindal foundation and Junior Fellowship by the Ministry of Culture, Govt of India. She has been invited for National and international Art camps and participated in many workshops, like the Kiln Building workshop by Joe Flinch, Anagama firing at Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry, terra-sigilata workshop by Shaimai Gibs as well as conducting workshops herself. She has explored her interest of teaching, by working as visiting faculty in Mithibhai College (BSA) and as pottery teacher for a year in Singapore International School, Mumbai.

Born in 1974, Siraj Saxena holds a B.F.A. from Govt. Institute of Fine Arts, Indore (1996). He works with various mediums including painting, ceramics, textile, printmaking and wood. In his versatile art practice he also explores poetry and has published several works. Most of what Siraj creates is inspired from a landscape of a certain kind. Although, pieces of natural elements such as leaves, familiar shapes and patches of colours remain quite manifested in his art form, most of his work remains non-representational.

Among his recent Solo Exhibitions are “Touch and shadow” Yingge ceramics museum Taiwan 2011, “BEYOND WORDS”ABA art contemporani Spain 2012, “Beyond words” ART en Hotel de la missio Spain 2012, “Beyond the words” Espacio micus contemporary arts Ibiza Spain 2013,“An art of the Tattered Time” Reflections art gallery Indore 2014. “Singular in plural” gallery Podrum Novi Sad Serbia 2015, The Affirmative Art, Traku gatves galerija Siauliai Lithuania 2016; In Brief an exhibition of Graphic art Reflections art Gallery, Indore 2018.

He has participated in more than 180 group exhibitions in India and abroad, as well as in national and international art workshops and symposiums such as 3rd China Changchun International Ceramic Symposium China 2014; 50TH International Ceramic and Sculpture Symposium Boleslawiec, Poland 2014; International painting camp organized by artists association Panevezys Lithuania 2016; 11h International Pleinair, Otto Niemeyer-Holstein painters Residency, Koserow 2017 Germany; 2nd Andaman international Art workshop Krabi, Thailand 2018.

Vinod Kumar Daroz was born in southern India. He studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University and completed his post-graduation (MFA) in ceramic sculpture in 1999. Thereafter, he did his course under Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith at Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry (1998), he also apprenticed with British potters Peter Illsley in Daventry and Sandy Brown in Bideford, UK (2004).

He has had more than 11 solo shows to date with prestigious galleries in India and abroad. His work has been chosen by several curators to be a part of important group exhibitions. He has participated in symposiums and exhibitions nationally/internationally, the most recent residencies being at “Liling ceramic valley Museum”, China; “International ceramic studio, Taochichun, Jingdezhen, China and Traveling solo show in China.

Vinod has received several awards including AIFACS Award for Best Potter of the Year, New Delhi (1998), AIFACS; Harmony Judges’ Special Award, Harmony Show, Mumbai (2004); Charles Wallace India Trust Award, British Council, India (2004). He is also a Member of International Academy of Ceramics (IAC), Geneva; International Ceramic Artists Association, Zibo, China.

His works take pride in many museums and private National/International collections. Vinod works and lives in Baroda, India.