Supported by JSW and curated by independent researcher and curator, Shaleen Wadhwana, the 2026 Talks Programme– Rising to Challenge, brings together artists, curators, thinkers, and cultural leaders to address the overarching question: What Makes Art Happen? Each panel responds to this question with a “challenge”— from long-standing issues of access, accountability and social difference, to urgent contemporary concerns such as Artificial Intelligence and indigenizing cultural spaces.
All talks are conducted in English and Indian Sign Language (ISL), with some talks in Hindi, Punjabi, Odia, and Saura* live translated for the audience.
*Saura (also known as Soura or Sora) is recognised as one of the oldest Indigenous languages of the Indian subcontinent
THEMATIC PREMISE
For artists and curators to challenge themselves, and the world around them,we need brave individuals and institutions that support them. Sometimes – the most groundbreaking art has happened before its time, when it was an experiment with form and subject matter, and it is supporting this very kind of unconventional thinking and practice, that is the need of the hour. With a fast polarising world, making safe artworks, and even safer choices, reduces spaces where arts practices can reflect the urgent and topical subjects of their time. We ask curators and artists from across the world, as they decenter dominant narratives and histories, how do they shape a present that includes embracing the inherent discomfort when art is in its honest, raw form.
SPEAKERS
Anish Gawande
Writer, Translator, and Politician
Anish Gawande is a writer, translator, and politician currently serving as the National Spokesperson for the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). A Rhodes Scholar, he holds degrees in comparative literature from Columbia University and in intellectual history and public policy from the University of Oxford. Anish is the founder of Pink List India, the country’s first archive of politicians supporting
LGBTQ+ rights, and a recognised advocate for inclusion and equal rights. As a translator, he has brought the poetry of Ramchandra Siras from Marathi to English. He continues to write and speak on contemporary art and literature, while also curating exhibitions at prominent art galleries across India.
UMAR RASHID
Artist
Umar Rashid, also known as Frohawk Two Feathers, creates the fictional “Frenglish Empire” (1648–1880) to reimagine colonial history through paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. His transcontinental narrative explores race, class, power, and the instability of public histories, centering people of color within invented historical chronicles. Drawing from Renaissance portraiture, Persian miniatures, hip-hop, comic books, and Native American ledger art, his work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, Zeitz MOCAA, and international venues across New York, Los Angeles, London, and Cape Town. His work is held in collections including Brooklyn Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and Nevada Museum of Art. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
HABDA RASHID
Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Fitzwilliam Museum
Habda Rashid is the first Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, where she leads initiatives to develop the collection within a globally and culturally inclusive framework. Until 2023, Habda served as Senior Curator at Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge. Previously, she was Senior Curator and subsequently interim Artistic Director at Create London, contributing to the Turner Prize–winning Hackney Windrush Art Commission by Veronica Ryan. She has also held curatorial positions at the Whitechapel Gallery and has commissioned and curated projects with artists including Leonor Antunes, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Theaster Gates. She serves as an advisor to the British School at Rome (Fine Art Faculty), is a Fellow of Wolfson College, and a member of the 2025 Turner Prize Jury.
Habda Rashid’s participation is supported by the Saat Saath Arts Foundation by Nature Morte.
GRACE LILLIAN LEE
Designer, Founder of First Nations Fashion + Design (FNFD)
A descendant of the Doolah family from Erub (Darnley Island) and the Miriam Mer people of the Eastern Torres Strait, Grace Lillian Lee is reshaping the landscape of Australian fashion by centring First Nations culture, talent, and sovereignty. She is deeply interested in exploring relationships between contemporary fashion, design, traditional cultures and communities. First Nations Fashion + Design (FNFD) is a national platform dedicated to empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creatives through sustainable pathways into the fashion industry. In 2025, she made history at Paris Couture Fashion Week by being the first Indigenous Australian woman to present independently and also being named on the Business of Fashion magazine’s BoF 500 list of the most influential people in the global fashion industry.
Grace Lillian Lee’s participation is supported by the Australian High Commission in India.
Dr Yu Jin SENG
Senior Curator and Director (Curatorial, Research, and Exhibitions), National Gallery Singapore
Yu Jin SENG currently works at the National Gallery Singapore as Director (Curatorial, Research & Exhibitions) and Senior Curator. Before that, he was a Lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts in the MA Asian Art Histories and BA Fine Arts programs, and now lectures at the National University of Singapore’s Minor in Art History programme. He obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2019. Seng’s research interests cover regional art histories focusing on Southeast Asian art in relation to studies on diaspora, migration, and cultural transfers. He is currently researching artistic activities and their histories, focusing on the history of exhibitions and artist collectives in Asia.
ASHFIKA RAHMAN
Artist
Rahman is a Bangladeshi artist whose practice bridges art and documentary, recontextualizing historical archives through contemporary media to illuminate marginalized communities in her homeland. Inspired by her mother’s work as a social worker, she creates alternative archives that amplify unheard voices. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Busan Biennale (2024), Pinchuk Art Museum, Ukraine (2024), Dhaka Art Summit (2023), and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2023), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2019). Winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2024 and currently artist-in-residence at Amsterdam’s Rijksakademie (2024–26), Rahman lectures at FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Switzerland, and Hochschule Hannover, Germany. Her work is held in prestigious collections including KNMA and Samdani Art Foundation. She lives and works between Dhaka and Amsterdam.
Ashfika Rahman’s participation is supported by the Vadehra Art Gallery.
MODERATOR
Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi
Writer and Curator
Curator, Visual Arts, at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi is a writer and curator based in New Delhi. He is currently Curator, Visual Arts, at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Department of Visual Arts, Ashoka University. In his multifaceted career spanning fifteen years, he has been involved in research and curatorial projects with the Park Avenue Armory and Asia Society in New York. He has held positions with the Devi Art Foundation, Raqs Media Collective, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Terrain.art, Nature Morte, and Pollinator.io, New Delhi. Mopidevi holds three Master’s Degrees from M.S. University of Baroda, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard, NY. He is the co-curator of Climate Recipes, an itinerant research project that documents intergenerational wisdom on the land and environment. Alongside Thukral and Tagra, he co-curated Sustaina India, an art, science, and climate action platform, where he now serves as an advisor.
