Meet the Mittal Institute’s 2026 South Asian Arts Fellow, Swapnaa Tamhane

The Mittal Institute’s newly-launched South Asian Arts Fellowship (SAAF) supports artists, curators, and scholars in North America whose work engages critically with the visual and material cultures of South Asia. This four-week residency in Cambridge offers fellows dedicated time to advance their research and creative practice while drawing on Harvard’s exceptional academic, curatorial, and archival resources, including the Harvard Art Museums and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. Selected by Harvard faculty and curators, fellows also present their work publicly and engage with the University’s vibrant intellectual community.

Our 2026 South Asian Arts Fellow is Swapnaa Tamhane, an artist and curator. She has an MFA in Fibres & Material Practices, Concordia University, Montreal, MA in Contemporary Art, University of Manchester, and a BA in Art History, Carleton University. Her work has been supported by SSHRC, Canada Council for the Arts, and Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Publications include SĀR: The Essence of Indian Design, Phaidon Press (2016), and HERE, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2017). She has exhibited her work at Green Art Gallery, Dubai; Patel Brown, Toronto; Sculpture Park Jaipur; Stewart Hall Art Gallery and Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, both in Montreal, and the V&A Museum, Dundee, Scotland; and has had solo exhibitions at Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; Surrey Art Gallery, British Columbia, and Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA. She was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2025. Read on to learn more about Swapnaa, including her practice and her hope for her time at Harvard University.

SAAF Arts Exhibit Opening + Reception: March 24, 2026

Join her for the South Asian Arts Fellow Arts Exhibit Opening + Reception on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, featuring Swapnaa and her work. The evening will begin with a presentation by Swapnaa, followed by a panel discussion with Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art in the Department of History of Art & Architecture and Faculty Director of the Arts Advisory Council at the Mittal Institute, Harvard University. The program will conclude with a reception featuring regional snacks and beverages.

Date: Tuesday, March 24, 5:30pm EST
Venue: CGIS South, S250, Cambridge MA

 ** Please note that the Exhibition is on view from March 20, 2026 through April 17, 2026. 

Swapnaa Tamhane, Mittal Institute South Asian Arts Fellow

Mittal Institute: Welcome, Swapnaa! Can you give us a background on yourself?

Swapnaa Tamhane: I come to making art through a background in art history and I have worked in many different fields in the arts, from publishing to curating. I decided to fully focus on a studio practice in 2017. I spend much time traveling and working between Canada and India, a country which informs me deeply. While my extended family is from Mumbai, I have been spending more and more time in Kutch, Gujarat, and am learning from philosophies of craft and community.

Mittal Institute: Can you describe your artistic motivations?

Swapnaa Tamhane:  My research begins with the material histories of cotton and jute which led to making handmade paper, working with archives, and textile installations. I consider my practice through a lens of drawing, considering mark-making through embroidery and drawing in space with cloth or mirrors, alongside the use of more traditional drawing materials like chalk pastel or pencil. I work closely with wood block carvers, block printers, embroiderers and dyers in Kutch, Gujarat, India, in a skill-sharing and collaborative process. I am interested in dissolving and decolonizing hierarchies between art, craft, design, and everyday objects as imprinted by British colonialism in India, and working with ornamentation to imbue the conceptual into the decorative.

Mittal Institute: What most excites you about being in Cambridge and on the Harvard campus?

Swapnaa Tamhane: I am excited to delve into archival research at the Fine Arts Library and the Widener Library, and particularly to learn about the Forbes Pigment Collection, and study the collections at the Harvard Art Museums. I am also looking forward to be a visiting student in a couple of classes on modern art as well as migration. I am deeply humbled by this invitation and am excited about what future works will emerge from this period.

Mittal Institute: Your research begins with the material histories of cotton and jute, tracing their entanglement with trade, labor, and colonial economies. Can you share a little more about this focus?

Swapnaa Tamhane:  I am interested in researching the impact of colonialism on the textile industry in South Asia. I am also looking at the architectural legacies of the post-colonial period, and the desire for cosmopolitan, global aspirations and thinking with the publications of magazines like “DESIGN”, which is informing a body of work that I am currently working on.

View A Slideshow of Swapnaa’s Work – click to view captions and advance the images

​Learn more

For more information about the South Asian Arts Fellowship, contact Sneha Shrestha. 

☆ The views represented herein are those of the interview subjects and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Mittal Institute, its staff, or its steering committee.