Distinguished Artist Fellowship
Throughout South Asia, prominent artists bring to light the socio-economic, political, and cultural characteristics of their countries through artistic and creative expression. Using mediums ranging from installation and film to painting and photography, the artists explore the region through the artistic lens, providing their audience with a deeper understanding of South Asia’s cultural context.
The Mittal Institute’s Distinguished Artist Fellowship builds on this artistic expression by bringing a senior artist from South Asia to Cambridge to enrich their future artistic work through the use of Harvard’s intellectual and creative resources.
Through a variety of mediums and forms of expression, South Asia’s artists provide commentary on the important issues related to the region and offer their interpretations through the artistic lens.
About the Fellowship
The Distinguished Artist Fellowship at the Mittal Institute supports the artistic endeavors and research of a senior artist from anywhere in South Asia, bringing them to Harvard’s campus in Cambridge to access Harvard’s intellectual and creative resources. The senior artists are nominated by a selection committee of faculty and curators of modern and contemporary South Asian art in recognition of the artist’s contribution to important issues related to South Asia through their use of artistic mediums and forms of expression.
The artist is invited to the Mittal Institute at Harvard to deliver a public lecture, engage with faculty and students across the University, and perform research at the Harvard Art Museums, the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, and Harvard’s many prestigious libraries.
The Distinguished Artists benefits from intellectual conversations with Harvard’s faculty and students, and through the variety of resources available at the library that can be used to inform their current and future art practice.
Distinguished Artist Fellows
Nilima Sheikh
Inaugural Distinguished Artist Fellow, Spring 2023
Nilima Sheikh’s work focuses on longing, loss, roots, displacement, violence, the perception of tradition, and ideas of femininity. Her paintings using tempera on handmade paper or canvas, as well as the formats and modes of installation she employs, are influenced by East Asian, Persian, Central Asian, pre-Renaissance European, and North Indian schools of tempera painting.
Naiza Khan
Distinguished Artist Fellow, Spring 2025
Naiza Khan’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses drawing, sculpture, archival material, and film, intertwining themes of land, body, and memory. Her work is rooted in critical research, documentation, and mapping-based exploration, raising significant questions about colonial history, collective memory, and the impact of old and new infrastructures.
This program is made possible by a generous donation from Dipti Mathur, Chair of the Mittal Institute’s Arts Advisory Council.