Ishita Chakraborty

b. India, 1989

Ishita Chakraborty (b.1989) is an artist and poet born in West Bengal, India. She lives and works between Switzerland and India.

Chakraborty’s artistic practice includes drawings, installations, poetry, performance, and sound. The context of her works is marked by the traces of displacement, traumas of colonialism, articulation in language, orality and identity. She investigates the strategies and the discourses of resistance narrated by individuals — often the subalterns. Her work is political, powerful, lyrical, and has been honored with several awards including the Visiting Artist Fellowship at Lakhshmi Mitaal SAI, HARVARD UNIVERSITY (2020-21). Chakraborty’s installation, Europa, has impressed the jury of the Aargauer Kunsthaus. She was awarded by the Kunsthaus as part of the Auswahl 21 program and thus invited as a guest for the upcoming annual exhibition (2022). The artist has also been awarded with the Credit Suisse Förderpreis and received a project grant from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Ishita Chakraborty’s recent and upcoming shows include her solo presentation at VOLTA Basel (2022), CAN YOU DIVIDE THE SKY?, ARTPOWHER Contemporary, The Mouth Is For Speaking at WE AIA, Löwenbräu Kunst Zürich (2022), Unfortunately It Was Paradise POP UP Public Art Project ‘Whispering Benches’ , supported by Pro Helvetia curated by Gianni Jetzer (2022), 5th International Biennale de Casablanca in Morocco (2022) curated by Christine Eyene, Auswahl 22 in Kunsthaus Aarau, solo exhibition in Gallery Espace, New Delhi, India (2023), Auswahl 21 in Kunsthaus Aarau curated by Sabrina Negroni, Life Lines at Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich (2021), curated by Roger M. Buergel and Francesca Ceccherini, Hermes Trismegistos Dreams of Futures within Futures (While Zhuang Zhou Eats a Butterfly) at Die Diele (2021) in Zurich curated by Damian Christinger, Mother Earth Calling in Atelier Mondial (2021) in Basel, Switzerland, Prameya Art Foundation, New Delhi, India (2020), and more. The artist is represented by Gallery Espace in India.

Chakraborty has received several grants and awards, including Visiting Artist Fellowship at Lakhshmi Mitaal SAI, HARVARD UNIVERSITY (2020-21), Credit Suisse Förderpreis in Switzerland (2021), she is honored by Jury award as part of “Selection 21” and thus invited as a guest for the upcoming annual exhibition in Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2022), Research Grant from Aargauer Kuratorium in Switzerland (2021), POP UP Project grant Pro Helvetia Switzerland (2021), ZHdK Avina Foundation grant in Switzerland (2020). Chakraborty was awarded Gästeatelier Krone residency in Switzerland (2017) and Piramal Museum of Art residency in Mumbai, India (2016). She has presented artist talks in Beletage Aarau, Switzerland (2021), KHOJ PEERS Residency, New Delhi, India (2018), Culture Clash in Dock Basel, Switzerland (2017), Rajya Charukala Parishad in Kolkata (2017), and Museum Forum Schloss Platz Aarau, Switzerland (2017).

Chakraborty holds a MFA degree from ZHdk, Zurich University of the Arts (2021), Switzerland and received another MFA in 2013 from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. She taught Fine Arts as an assistant professor at Amity University, Kolkata (2016-2018).

Photo by Julian Salinas