Department of Visual Arts - Ashoka University

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Department of Visual Arts

The Department of Visual Arts at Ashoka University combines courses in Art History and Visual Culture with training in material, media and site specific aspects of Studio Arts. While the Art History and Visual Culture courses offer historical and philosophical contexts in which visual arts has been developed and practiced, the Studio Arts courses help the students learn the fundamentals of an art form and develop it through practice. Both the components work in tandem and help the student acquire an integrated understanding of art.

Programmes

Faculty at Visual Arts

The Department of Visual Arts’s faculty includes visual art practitioners, working through varied media and methods, as well as art historians and visual studies scholars with research interests and expertise spanning the early medieval to the contemporary period.

Facilities

Art Studio

Art Studio

The Department of Visual Arts offers Minor courses in Art histories and Art practice at an undergraduate level. The art studios at the department provide facilities for some of the foundational courses in Visual Arts. Students have the possibilities to experiment in Drawing and explore the various experimental possibilities in the studio. The studio also houses facilities to experiment in oil and easel painting. There are provisions for clay modelling, clay and plaster sculpture making, terracotta pottery and firing. The studio houses electric wheels and electricity kiln for students to learn terracotta sculpture and pottery making. There are provisions to experiment in print techniques with a lino and etching press provided in the studio. Plans are underway to expand the studio facilities in the near future.

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Dear All,

The Department of Visual Arts is delighted to invite you to the second talk in the Visual Arts Colloquium Series, Monsoon 2026.

Title of the Talk: Being as One: Living as Making, Making as Living

Speaker: Manisha Parekh

Date & Time: Friday, 18th September, 2026, 1:30 PM - 3 PM 

Venue: Visual Arts Studio (near sports block)z

Abstract: 

Choosing a material is a journey I only understand once I'm in the thick of it. Each material carries its own character, its own quiet resistance, and it's only through spending real time with it that it begins to reveal itself. Once the work starts, I've come to recognize a kind of give and take — a point where I stop simply acting on the material and start listening to it. It begins to guide me, to show me how it wants to be used, and I've learned to let that happen rather than resist it. I don't look for resolution too soon. I let the process stay open, unfinished, still becoming. Over the years, I've moved between painting, collage, drawing, and sculpture without feeling the need to stay within any one of them — and it's in that movement, that exploration, that the geometric and the organic seem to find each other.

Speaker Bio:

Manisha Parekh is one of the few artists in India today who continues to explore an exclusively abstract visual language. Her distinct aesthetic subtly echoes the geometric draftsmanship of Nasreen Mohamedi, her teacher at Baroda, while also carrying traces of  V. S. Gaitonde's ethereal abstraction and the gestural energy of Jeram Patel's ink drawings.
Her practice, often a celebration of the art and craft traditions of her native land, moves fluidly between painting, collage, drawing and sculptural installation, weaving together the geometric and the organic. Material is Parekh's metaphor.
She has exhibited internationally in Lahore (Pakistan), Singapore, the USA, London and Amsterdam, among other locations. Her shows in India include Chromatic Flight at Nature Morte, New Delhi (2023), and A River Inside at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2020).
Parekh completed her BA and MA in Painting from M.S. University, Baroda (1988 and 1990), and a further degree at the Royal College of Art, London (1993). She lives and works in New Delhi.

 

To receive further updates, talk-specific announcements and event details, please sign up for the Visual Arts Colloquium mailing list: [Sign up here]

We look forward to having you with us for the talk. 

warm regards,

Visual Arts Department

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Dear All,

The Department of Visual Arts is delighted to announce the Visual Arts Colloquium Series, Monsoon 2026, featuring a diverse lineup of multidisciplinary contemporary artists, art historians, and practitioners.

This semester’s conversations will explore a wide range of ideas and practices—including identity and language, abstraction and materiality, visual storytelling, urban space and displacement, art and politics, and the relationship between art and everyday life. 

Colloquium Schedule | Monsoon 2026

All talks will be held at the Visual Arts Studio (ground floor sports block near basket ball court), from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM.

11 September | Mithu Sen

18 September |  Manisha Parekh

23 October | Shikhant S.

30 October | Gigi Scaria

6 November | Anupam Roy

20 November | Deepti Mulgund
 

We warmly invite faculty, students and members of the university community to join us for these conversations and engage with the speakers.

To receive further updates, talk-specific announcements and event details, please sign up for the Visual Arts Colloquium mailing list: [Sign up here]

We look forward to welcoming you to the Visual Arts Colloquium Series, Monsoon 2026. 

 

warm regards,

Visual Arts Department

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Dear All,

The Department of Visual Arts is delighted to invite you to the second talk in the Visual Arts Colloquium Series, Monsoon 2026.

Title of the Talk: Being as One: Living as Making, Making as Living

Speaker: Manisha Parekh

Date & Time: Friday, 18th September, 2026, 1:30 PM - 3 PM 

Venue: Visual Arts Studio (near sports block)z

Abstract: 

Choosing a material is a journey I only understand once I'm in the thick of it. Each material carries its own character, its own quiet resistance, and it's only through spending real time with it that it begins to reveal itself. Once the work starts, I've come to recognize a kind of give and take — a point where I stop simply acting on the material and start listening to it. It begins to guide me, to show me how it wants to be used, and I've learned to let that happen rather than resist it. I don't look for resolution too soon. I let the process stay open, unfinished, still becoming. Over the years, I've moved between painting, collage, drawing, and sculpture without feeling the need to stay within any one of them — and it's in that movement, that exploration, that the geometric and the organic seem to find each other.

Speaker Bio:

Manisha Parekh is one of the few artists in India today who continues to explore an exclusively abstract visual language. Her distinct aesthetic subtly echoes the geometric draftsmanship of Nasreen Mohamedi, her teacher at Baroda, while also carrying traces of  V. S. Gaitonde's ethereal abstraction and the gestural energy of Jeram Patel's ink drawings.
Her practice, often a celebration of the art and craft traditions of her native land, moves fluidly between painting, collage, drawing and sculptural installation, weaving together the geometric and the organic. Material is Parekh's metaphor.
She has exhibited internationally in Lahore (Pakistan), Singapore, the USA, London and Amsterdam, among other locations. Her shows in India include Chromatic Flight at Nature Morte, New Delhi (2023), and A River Inside at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2020).
Parekh completed her BA and MA in Painting from M.S. University, Baroda (1988 and 1990), and a further degree at the Royal College of Art, London (1993). She lives and works in New Delhi.

 

To receive further updates, talk-specific announcements and event details, please sign up for the Visual Arts Colloquium mailing list: [Sign up here]

We look forward to having you with us for the talk. 

warm regards,

Visual Arts Department

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News

Events

News

Contact Us

For any queries regarding Visual Arts programmes, please contact: -

Rakhi Peswani

Head of Department

rakhi.peswani@ashoka.edu.in

Uttkarsha

Department Manager

uttkarsha@ashoka.edu.in

Sindhushree Chowdhury

Visual Arts Student Representative, AY 26-27

studentrepresentative.visualarts@ashoka.edu.in

Anuj Kumar Yadav

Visual Arts Studio Manager

anuj.yadav@ashoka.edu.in

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