Akartha Halder

Akartha Halder is a visual artist from Cooper's Camp, West Bengal, who currently lives and works in Delhi NCR. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Fine Art from the Department of Painting, Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. His art practice embraces a multidisciplinary approach, assembling forms and narratives that document socio-political absences and disappearances. Through his work, he constructs a thought process around materials, processes, and the interplay between presence and absence, creating a conversation that develops into a critical dialogue. 

Akartha draws inspiration from his father’s silk screen-printing process, a significant part of his childhood. The exposure and washing of the screen to create a negative image, where presence and absence coexisted in the same space, fascinated him. This formative experience continues to influence his practice, shaping his inquiries across various mediums. The processes of erasing and removing are fundamental to his work, emphasizing the material’s perishability, and serving as an underlined gesture of power, politics and social commentary. He engages with diverse contexts of disappearances within his surroundings, documenting them through fragile materials to develop nuanced narratives of presence and absence. His work raises questions on our materialistic culture, preservation, and permanence, while underscoring the transient nature of human existence and the fragile nature of our creations.

Ritika Sharma

Ritika Sharma is a visual artist based out of New Delhi, India. She has completed her BFA and MFA in Painting from the College of Art, Delhi. Her artistic practice investigates everyday experiences, observations, local spaces, and their involved politics through mixed media works. In her practice, she delves into a complex arrangement of everyday occurrences that induces a sense of discomfort or mood shifter in many instances, yet includes trivial moments of care. These experiences have allowed her to be an observer in transit and eventually realize the personal as political. Ritika’s practice incorporates journaling, photography, painting, and critical reflection to delve into routine behaviors, social structures, gestures, and acts of resistance. Her work navigates the intricate dynamics of human behavior and the latent politics of local spaces, uncovering layers of meaning within seemingly mundane practices.

She has been actively participating in artist residencies, workshops, and courses including ‘Summer Residency’ at LAMO, Ladakh 2024, ‘Beyond the Gaze 2023’ - an international workshop by Photo South Asia, Space Studio - BICAR Writing Fellowship 2023, On-Screens by Reliable Copy in 2021, Coloring the World - an artist residency at Piramal Art Foundation in 2019 and Moving Images- A course exploring Light, Movement and Moment organized by FICA and SAT in 2017.

Biswajit Thakuria

Biswajit Thakuria is a visual artist from Assam. He completed his BFA and MFA in Painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. His practice revolves around social memories and landscape dialogues. He investigates landscapes as intricate, multi-layered phenomena, aiming to revisit significant events from Assam’s past by engaging with archival memories, both public and private.

Through his approach, he deliberately examines the role of power and fosters dialogues around counter-histories through archival research. His work spans photography, videos, and drawings, with a focus on organic materials inspired by the mask-making traditions of Assam.

Biswajit has participated in several notable exhibitions and residencies, including the Students Biennale at Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2022-23), Bare Acts, curated by Arushi Vats at Prameya Art Foundation, New Delhi (2023-24), and A Season of Conviviality at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2022). Other highlights include the Immerse Fellowship 2.0 in Mumbai (2023), Khoj Peers Share in New Delhi (2023), and the SNANE Residency in Shillong (2024). In 2023, he received the Prince Claus Seed Award.

To enjoy the highlights of the Inlaks Fine Art Award Ceremony 2025, click here.