I am Nilanjana Nandy, an artist and educator. I draw, make artist-books and set up installations for people to collectively experience and exchange ideas. Sometimes, I transform familiar spaces into a fantastical one with minimal interventions and performative exercises.

I am interested in gender-based issues, the impact of patriarchy in everyday situations, and in shaping young minds through canonical understanding of concepts. My work involves the use of age specific stationery/tools used in schools, both as a material and structure. It entails a degree of nostalgia and critical reflection. The labour and the laborious become both the subject and the medium in my art.

My art making and teaching practices inform and impact each other. For almost two decades I have been interacting and engaging with young learners from schools. This engagement keeps me refreshed, enthusiastic, and aware of our changing world. Telling stories about art and artists; observing slowly and thoroughly; interpreting in different ways; creating something every day; knowing art material and medium are some of the regular routines I use when working with young learners. 

Aside from this I also engage with young graduates and undergraduates from art colleges. While addressing distinct formal and conceptual concerns of art making, I also work with them towards bringing the practice and the theory closer. Navigating through the fundamental ‘what-why-how’, the connection between the personal and the political is reiterated.

While working, I love taking short breaks to look out of the window, at a distance or at the planters and climber in my studio balcony. For me, process and the love for it is pivotal in every sphere of life. Thus, art to me is the means and not the end.

To learn more about my formal education, exhibition history and projects I have been a part of download my bio Here.