Raka Panda

Raka Panda (b. 1990, Midnapore, West Bengal, India) completed her BFA, 2014 and MFA, 2016 in Painting from Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. She has participated in several group shows, including at India Art Fair, Delhi, 2017, AIFACS Art Gallery, Delhi, 2018, Nine Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2018, Asian Biennale, Bangladesh, 2018, Hutheesing Art Gallery, Ahmedabad, 2018,  Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2018, Art Revolution Taipei, Taiwan, 2019, Emergent Art Space, 2020, Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad, 2021, NIV Art Centre, Delhi, 2021, and Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, 2022.

Additionally, she participated in Space Studio Monsoon Residency, Vadodara, 2022, Kalakriti Artist Residency, Hyderabad, 2019, Kanoria Centre for Arts Painting Studio Residency, Ahmedabad, 2016-2018, and New Grammar, a collaborative Residency at Art Ichol, Ichoul, 2017.

Raka’s works explore the spaces around her and the society she grew up in. She specifically focuses on the distinctive lives, natures, cultures and livelihoods of people. The descriptive richness of the narrative essence of her work evokes a cathartic reaction that is distant, virtual and concrete. Through empathy, Raka makes an attempt to emulate the journey of society and the common man through their daily routines in her artwork. She visualizes herself in the frame of her works, and thus the stories that surround her breathe life into her creations. 

Raka lives and works in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.