Puja Sarkar — Artist Biography

Puja Sarkar is an Indian multidisciplinary contemporary artist, curator, and cultural practitioner based in Kolkata, India. With more than two decades of artistic practice, her work explores memory, identity, feminist perspectives, emotional resilience, and the complexities of human connection through painting and mixed media. She completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2007 and Master of Fine Arts in 2009 at the Faculty of Visual Arts, Rabindra Bharati University.

Rooted in autobiography yet extending beyond the personal, Sarkar’s practice transforms familiar everyday objects into symbolic forms carrying psychological, emotional, and cultural significance. Handbags, combs, safety pins, umbrellas, and other ordinary objects become vessels for concealed memories, unspoken emotions, intimate relationships, vulnerability, and hope. Working across painting and mixed media, she incorporates discarded materials, including plastic fragments, rusted metal, and synthetic flowers, as both medium and message, reflecting on consumer excess and ecological fragility. Through vivid colour, layered surfaces, and surreal associations, she challenges the boundaries between the familiar and the imagined, the visible and the unseen.

A life-changing accident caused internal brain hemorrhage in 2000 profoundly altered Sarkar’s relationship with memory, time, and personal continuity. This experience became an important part of the deeper context of her artistic journey, informing a visual language through which fragmented experiences can be reimagined and communicated. Her work invites viewers to look beyond an object’s everyday function and consider the emotional histories and human experiences it may embody. Through her practice, Sarkar transforms silence into narrative, the ordinary into the extraordinary, and personal history into a broader reflection on shared human experience.

Over a career spanning more than two decades, Sarkar has participated in more than 100 national and international exhibitions, with her work presented in countries including Italy, the United Kingdom, South Korea, the United States, Japan, and Bangladesh. Her accolades include the Creative Excellence Award from the Circle Foundation for the Arts, France (2025); the HER STORY Women Artist Award, New York (2019); and the Junior Fellowship in Painting from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India (2022). In 2026, she was interviewed and featured twice by Art in Reply, London. In 2025, she was named an ARTIT Spotlight Interview Winner Artist in the United Kingdom. Her professional engagements also include an artist residency programme at Lalit Kala Akademi in 2024 and an invitation to participate in a national painting camp at the Indian School of Business in 2025. She has interviewed and featured in numerous International publication.

 

Beyond her studio practice, Sarkar founded SMS, an artistic and socio-cultural organisation, in 2009, creating platforms for exhibitions, artist collaborations, cultural exchange, and creative dialogue. Her humanitarian commitment is reflected in her role as Founder-Secretary of Bhalobasa Welfare Society, a non-profit organisation supporting underprivileged children and vulnerable communities. An active cultural contributor, she has served as a juror for art and cultural events in India, led educational initiatives, and worked to advance the socio-cultural development of underprivileged children and women through art.

Across these interconnected practices, Sarkar approaches art as a means of translating personal experience into shared reflection, fostering empathy, and revealing the extraordinary emotional worlds contained within ordinary life.

 

Some of Her Important Participations, Awards, Publications and Recognitions

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In February 2026, she was featured under Best Talents & Brands on We.Directory, USA, in recognition of her artistic innovation and cultural leadership. https://we.directory/poojasarkarart. Her story was selected and featured in Issue 4: TIME of .ART Odyssey Magazine, USA. She participated in Wings, Birds and Flight, an international online group exhibition organised by No. 35 Gallery, United Kingdom. She was featured and interviewed in LIGHT (Issue 04) and Soulcery (Issue 03) by Art in Reply (A.I.R.), London. She wrote a blog for SMS, an artistic and socio-cultural organisation, titled Untold Journey: Building Art Organization as a Teenager Artist, as its Founder and author. Her artwork He And She, Night In Red, originally published in Issue 11 of The Hemlock Journal (2025), was selected for inclusion in the journal’s forthcoming Special Art Issue, a curated collection of outstanding artworks previously published across Issues 01–12.

In 2025, she received the Creative Excellence Award from the Circle Foundation for the Arts, France, and was honoured as an ARTIT Spotlight Interview Winner Artist in the United Kingdom—recognition that affirmed the conceptual and emotional depth of her practice on an international level. Her works were exhibited in Collective We, a group exhibition organised by RevArt, Richmond, California, USA. She was selected for Art in Dialogue: Colour // Archives, part of ARTIT Artist Curator’s Picks, in November 2025. She was one of five artists selected for the feature, which was accompanied by a curatorial essay. In the same year, she was invited to participate in the National Painting Camp organised by ISB (Indian School of Business), Chandigarh, India. She also wrote a blog for Artygance, an art hub based in Mumbai, titled Artist Collectives Hold a Vital and Transformative Role in India, as Founder of SMS and the article’s author and contributor.

In 2024, she was invited to participate in the international curated exhibition Interchange, organised by Florence Art Contemporary Gallery, Italy, and the Subjective Art Festival, hosted by HUG at Lume Studios, New York, USA. She also participated in Brushing Stigma Away, an international exhibition organised by the ARTIT artist community, London, United Kingdom, and the prestigious Blue Planet Grassroots Global Art Event. Her work was also featured in the Blue Planet collective book, podcast, and documentary film by Odyssey Global Media, London, United Kingdom. She participated in a series of themed exhibitions—THE PAST, RED, THE SKY, and PAIN AND SORROW—organised by Move in Colors, an international non-profit art association based in Italy. She received Special Mentions for the THE PAST and RED exhibitions organised by Move in Colors, Italy, in 2024. In the same year, she received the Silver Medal Award from 27 ART POINT, Jaipur, and the Best Artwork Award at an International Women’s Art Award and Exhibition organised by ART INDIA GALLERY, New Delhi, India.

In 2023, she was invited by the Kerala Lalit Kala Akademi to participate in a National Art Residency Programme. In 2022, she received the Junior Fellowship in Painting for 2019–2020 from the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), Ministry of Culture, Government of India, New Delhi. In 2021, she participated in an international art exhibition sponsored and organised by the Daejeon International Arts Exchange Association, South Korea. In 2019, as an Indian woman artist, she won the prestigious international HER STORY Women Artist Award, a global initiative celebrating feminism, women’s empowerment, and social responsibility. The award was organised and sponsored by SeeMe Gallery, USA. Her story and artworks were displayed digitally at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea, New York, United States. In 2017, she was invited to participate in a National Painting Camp sponsored and organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, Regional Centre, Kolkata, at Pobitora, Guwahati, Assam. In 2016, she was invited to participate in the Creators Deserve to Be Seen project, The Beauty of Art, sponsored by SeeMe Gallery, at Times Square, New York, USA. In 2015, she was featured as The Voice of the Artist at SCOPE Art Fair, sponsored by SCOPE Art, in Miami Beach, Florida, USA. In 2010, she received a prestigious award from Book Art Press, New York, USA. In 2008, she was invited to participate in Vicinity, a prestigious exhibition featuring artists from Chittagong and Kolkata, sponsored and organised by the Assistant High Commission of India in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Her artworks have been featured in various national and international publications. Puja also contributes illustrations to magazines. Her artworks are held in several private collections in India and abroad.

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Important Curated Art Events by Puja Sarkar

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Puja has been actively working as a curator for more than a decade. She has curated several significant exhibitions, including Empathy (2020), featuring established Indian contemporary artists; Concave & Convex (2021), an international sculpture exhibition; Vibrant Hues, Spirited Forms (2023); and Winter Carnival (2025), showcasing both established and emerging artists. She has also curated and conducted numerous art talk shows and webinars on visual art practice in India. She is the Founder and Director of SMS — A Group of Artists, a reputed artistic and socio-cultural organisation that promotes emerging talent, facilitates artistic exchange, and actively engages in social initiatives.

Puja has frequently been invited by various institutions and organisations to serve on judging committees responsible for selecting emerging talent in the field of visual arts. She lives and works in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

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