Swapna Halder

Swapna Halder is a multidisciplinary visual art practitioner from West Bengal, with a Bachelor’s from The Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship,  Kolkata, and a Master’s in Painting from Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan. Her artistic journey is characterized by continuous evolution and a deep engagement with diverse mediums, including drawing, painting, film, photography, stop-motion animation, poetry, interviews, and sound gathering.

Her practice has now transformed through her immersion from an individualistic way of expression to a micro-level community engagement. Recognizing the importance of collaborative creation, she shifted from being an observer to an active participant, fostering emotional connections and solidarity. This collective identity enriches her work, allowing her to create pieces that resonate with hope and shared experiences.

Swapna’s previous practice involved distant observations of ecological decline, but she soon realized the necessity of engaging directly with the land and its people. Through ethnographic research methodologies, she has deepened her understanding of the complexities surrounding her themes. Her pedagogical approach encourages alternative learning experiences, merging her artistic practice with the realities of urbanization and ecological change. She employs non-linear narratives to evoke emotions through fragments and personal memories.

Vanshika Babbar

Vanshika Babbar is a multidisciplinary artist. She completed her Master’s from Ambedkar University, Delhi. She works with painting, video and video/AR installations and zines, to name a few. Her underlying interests emerge from the need to investigate the condition of middleclassness, the social absurdities of life under the Capital Relation, and the ideological mediations that pervade everyday life at the levels of the personal, familial and social. Her practice engages with the political dimensions of subjective formations, observing the multiple acts, performances and operations of power in interpersonal relationships, in an attempt to interrogate mundanity while simultaneously trying to find redemption in it. 

In her paintings she translates the abovementioned inquiries onto closeups of the face, which can be seen as caricatures attempting to uncover from within the notional regularities of the face, traces of impending biases and certain disavowed truths. Her video/ installation works and paintings attempt to reveal the fragmented, visceral, intensive, and vulnerable aspects of the human condition. The material she collects, including found footage, objects, popular images and more, organizes itself in her works in a series of contradictions, a humorous set of events, or ironies that do not necessarily resolve into larger wholes. 

She has been a part of shows such as Students’ Biennale 2020 and 2022 and Critical Zones at Goethe Institute, TEXTEXT at FICA, and has received residencies and awards such as the Generator Cooperative Art Production Fund and A4A Foundation Virtual Residency Program.

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