Designed as an annual art writer’s award, an eminent, rotating jury consisting of art critics and curators is assigned the task of choosing an applicant who has demonstrated a sustained commitment to research, conceptual frameworks and art history in their writing practice, as the recipient of the award. Applications are received via open call as opposed to nominations to ensure equal opportunity.
The chosen writer is awarded an international curatorial residency in partnership with our various collaborators around the world in order to help them demonstrate their critical acumen in curatorial research. This is part of PRAF’s emphasis on encouraging research, criticality and innovation within curatorial narratives, especially among young/emerging curators.
This year, in partnership with Institut Français, the recipient will be awarded a one-month residency at Chateau La Napoule, the residency space of the La Napoule Art Foundation. Their research and writing during this time will ultimately lead to an exhibition curated by them in New Delhi. Residency costs including flights to France, accommodation, visa expenses and per diem will be covered on behalf of the resident.
The following supporting material must accompany every application:
Anahita Taneja and Shefali Somani founded Shrine Empire in 2008. Since its inception, Shrine Empire has consistently focused on promoting artists from the South Asian region whose practices emphasize process, research, and conceptual use of media and material. The gallery’s programming has created a unique identity for the space through curated exhibitions and propositions, as well as commissioned projects which explore crossings between aesthetics and social/political concerns of its immediate context.
The chosen writer is awarded an international curatorial residency in partnership with our various collaborators around the world in order to help them demonstrate their critical acumen in curatorial research. This is part of PRAF’s emphasis on encouraging research, criticality and innovation within curatorial narratives especially among young/emerging curators.
In 2005, Devi Art Foundation was born out of a desire to facilitate the viewership of creative expression and artistic practice. At the core of it is a contemporary art collection from India and other parts of South Asia. By presenting art from all over the subcontinent, the Foundation hopes to invoke a sense of shared history within the region. It is envisioned that the Collection will enable wider audiences to interact with cutting edge and experimental Artworks. Continuing Traditions of Arts from India, also finds a substantial representation in the collection of Devi Art Foundation.
We believe that the diversity of the collection can become an important resource for learning. The Foundation renews its commitment towards integrating art into the discourse of public life by creating invigorating Education and Outreach Programmes. We wish to imbibe a culture wherein art does not remain cloistered within the confines of Institutions and becomes a matter of active discussion and debate. It is our hope that such focused attention will make Art an active presence in people’s lives and will enthuse them about the many kinds of artistic practices that are present today.
Zeenat Nagree, winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2019-20, is an independent writer and curator. She studied art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with a focus on the circulation of the concepts of indigenism and internationalism in India from the 1960s to 1980s. Nagree regularly contributes to Art India and Artforum among other publications and writes essays for exhibitions. She has recently curated projects at Mumbai Art Room, Clark House Initiative, and Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai. Nagree's practice is centred on the idea of writing with art rather than about art. She divides her time between Bombay and Montreal.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit:
Sonali Bhagchandani is the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2023-24. She is a writer and curator based in Mumbai, India. Her research explores both visual and narrative strategies in story-telling, focusing on intersections between text, image, and the ‘archive’ in contemporary exhibitions and material histories.
She holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London (2022), and a BA in English Literature from St. Xavier’s College (2016). Previously, she attained a Post Graduate Diploma in Modern & Contemporary Indian Art and Curatorial Studies from the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2017). Her writings have been published by Project 88, ART India, The Hindu, JPM Quarterly, and Usawa Literary Review.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit: www.lnaf.org
Shaunak Mahbubani (they/them) is the winner of Pramya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2018-19. They are a curator and arts organizer, currently living in New Delhi. They primarily pursue projects under the series 'Allies for the Uncertain Futures,’ initiated in 2016. This exhibition series is focused on exploring the possibilities of socio-political, ecological and techno-evolutionary futures through the lens of non-duality. They are interested in complicating boundaries between artwork and the viewer through participatory gatherings, diffusions, and the use of non-white cube spaces. Mahbubani has recently curated a solo exhibition of Seema Kohli’s works at Sundar Nursery (2019). They have received exhibition grants from apexart (New York) and the Inlaks Foundation, and were also a part of the inaugural 2017 edition of CISA (Curatorial Intensive South Asia) initiated by Khoj International Artist's Association and Goethe Institut Delhi. They have previously curated exhibitions and projects at TIER (Berlin); Embassy of Switzerland, Sunder Nursery, Goethe Institut, Kalakar Theatre (New Delhi); Mumbai Art Room (Mumbai), 1Shanthi Road (Bangalore), and TIFA Working Studios (Pune). They also make spatial interventions and new media work under the moniker ‘After Party Collective’ with Vidisha Fadescha, including ‘Queer Futures Potluck Party’ as part of Five Million Incidents (2019). Mahbubani was Curator, Programming at The Gujral Foundation 2017-18, and is Inlaks-ISCP NY Curatorial Resident 2020-21.
Shaunak attended a one-month residency in March 2019 at La Napoule Art Foundation and then curated an exhibition titled Seeds are Being Sown in Delhi, in September 2020.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit:
Sonali Bhagchandani is the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2023-24. She is a writer and curator based in Mumbai, India. Her research explores both visual and narrative strategies in story-telling, focusing on intersections between text, image, and the ‘archive’ in contemporary exhibitions and material histories.
She holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London (2022), and a BA in English Literature from St. Xavier’s College (2016). Previously, she attained a Post Graduate Diploma in Modern & Contemporary Indian Art and Curatorial Studies from the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2017). Her writings have been published by Project 88, ART India, The Hindu, JPM Quarterly, and Usawa Literary Review.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit: www.lnaf.org
Premjish Achari, the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2017-18, is a curator, writer and translator based in Delhi. His translations have appeared in Indian Literature, published by Sahitya Akademi. He has initiated an independent curatorial platform called Future Collaborations, aiming at theoretically and politically informed curation. His exhibition "Things are vanishing before us" was part of the Curators Ensemble for Krishnakriti Festival January 2017. He has recently curated the show “A Preview to Desolation” at Italian Cultural Center in 2017. He has received the Inlaks: Take on Art Travel Grant for Young Critics in 2016. He is the Fellow for Curatorial Intensive South Asia (CISA) 2017 at Khoj International Artist’s Association. In 2018, he received the Art Scribes Award by Prameya Art Foundation for developing new curatorial paradigms. He is currently the Director-Outreach at Art1st Foundation and also a Visiting Faculty at Shiv Nadar University where he teaches art history and theory. He is pursuing his Ph.D. titled “Temple Arts of Medieval Kerala: Constructing a Regional Identity” from School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, India.
Premjish attended a one-month residency in March 2018 at La Napoule Art Foundation and then curated an exhibition titled Time for Farewells in Delhi, in July 2019.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit:
Sonali Bhagchandani is the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2023-24. She is a writer and curator based in Mumbai, India. Her research explores both visual and narrative strategies in story-telling, focusing on intersections between text, image, and the ‘archive’ in contemporary exhibitions and material histories.
She holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London (2022), and a BA in English Literature from St. Xavier’s College (2016). Previously, she attained a Post Graduate Diploma in Modern & Contemporary Indian Art and Curatorial Studies from the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2017). Her writings have been published by Project 88, ART India, The Hindu, JPM Quarterly, and Usawa Literary Review.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit: www.lnaf.org
Adwait Singh, the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2016-17 is an independent curator and theorist based out of New Delhi. Their works frequently weave in and out of areas of inquiry such as subjectivity formation, gender and sexuality, posthumanism, contemporary technogenesis and ecofeminism. Shortly after completing their Master's at Goldsmiths, they seized the opportunity to be a part of the Students' Biennale 2016 and have since facilitated different art projects and workshops for/with young artistic practitioners across the country for various non-profit organisations. Recent curations include 'Mutarerium' at the Mumbai Art Room that questions the terminology of the Anthropocene based on three more-than-human evolutionary timelines (Mumbai, 2019) and 'Caressing History' — a group show investigating the possibility of a body-based historiography for Prameya Art Foundation (New Delhi, 2018). They have been appointed as the curator of the 5th edition of the Mardin Biennial (2020).
As an art writer Adwait has been devoting his energies documenting and theorising independent exhibitions and alternative art practices.
Adwait attended a one-month residency in March 2017 at La Napoule Art Foundation and then curated an exhibition titled Caressing History in Delhi, in April 2018.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit: www.lnaf.org
Anushka Rajendran, the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2013-14, is an independent curator and art writer. She was most recently the Assistant Curator for Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2018. She is also Curator of Prameya Art Foundation [PRAF], a recently established not-for-profit arts organization committed to approaches that enable audience-thinking for contemporary art in India. She has conceptualised the programming of PRAF to search for new and engaged publics in India and experiment with non-traditional pedagogy for the arts. Formerly, as part of her long-standing position as Assistant Editor for the leading South Asian arts journal TAKE on art, she has curated and conceptualised outreach initiatives and programming for the publication, besides her hands-on editorial role.
As a research scholar, she is completing her PhD in Visual Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her ongoing research traces how the notion of “public” has acquired alternative significance to contemporary Indian art since 2004 for her dissertation “Where Lies the Public? Aesthetics of Social Engagement.“ Her research in the past focussed on the adoption of installation art by artists with established painting and sculptural practices in the early 1990s in India to address collective and personal trauma. This research culminated in an MPhil, as part of which she wrote “Installation Art in India: Preoccupations with Trauma.”
For her curatorial practice, she has been awarded fellowships that supported residencies with Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Aomori, Japan; the International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York (by Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation); and Theertha International Artists’ Collective, Colombo (by PRAF). Her contribution as an art writer and editor was recognized in 2015 when she received the Art Scribes Award for emerging/mid-career art writers of Indian origin.
Anushka attended residency in 2015 atTheertha International Artists’ Collective, Colombo and then curated an exhibition titled WIT(H)NESS in Delhi, in October 2016.
THEERTHA INTERNATIONAL ARTIST COLLECTIVE
Theertha International Artists Residency is a program, which facilitates artists internationally and locally to come together to exchange their knowledge and cultural experiences in a situation of sharing. One of the main objectives of this project is to provide a forum for artists to explore new ideas responding to the local situation/environment.
Paroma Maiti, the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2012-13. She is an editor with a leading publisher house in Kolkata, India. She has developed an interest towards writing stories for children.
Paroma attended a one-month residency in 2012 at Red Gate Residency and then curated an exhibition titled Invented Identities in Delhi, in April 2014.
RED GATE RESIDENCY
Red Gate Residency is an international artist residency program, providing artists, curators, writers, and academics with the opportunity to live and create work in China. Their objective is to provide facilities for artists/writers to easily start their projects and offer a community in which they can participate as much as they like.
As a member of RES ARTIS, the International Association of Residential Arts Centres, they are committed to the promotion of multicultural art dialogue within an immersion setting.
Red Gate assists all participants to connect with the art scene, meet local Chinese artists and source art materials. They provide the necessary support and encouragement to help participants get the most out of their stay here.
Oindrilla Maity Surai, the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2011, is an independent curator, and research scholar, pursuing her Ph.D. in Culture Studies from Visva -Bharati, Santiniketan, India. She has curated quite a few exhibitions since 2007 that addressed contemporary moorings; regional struggles; problems of migration and dislocation; mediatic practices and the challenges that artists face and cope with in the regional-global continuum. She is a regular contributor to most art magazines that are published from the country and has been at the editorial desk for quite a few. She was selected for the Curatorial Programme at Khoj International Artists' Association, New Delhi in 2010 and was invited by the Gwangju Metropolitan Museum of Art for a research residency on contemporary art in Gwangju in 2011. She won the Art Scribe Award, 2010 and attended the Gwangju Biennale International Curators' Course, 2012.
Oindrilla attended residency in 2011 at Gwangju Museum of Art and then curated an exhibition titled Whose History? Which Stories in Delhi, in December 2012.
GWANGJU MUSEUM OF ART
Gwangju Museum of Art is built as a public art museum to support artistic professionals. It was the first public art museum in the Gwangju area, opening on August 1st, 1992. The existence of numerous painters in Gwangju explains why Gwangju is called the home of art.
The Gwangju Museum of Art has studios that are designed as working spaces for young talented artists and others, the museum also features various programs such as exhibitions, seminars, and artist exchange programs. The studio space is 46m2.
This program is designed for discussing works, engaging in discourses and information exchange and forming personal networks.
Arushi Vats is the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2021-22. She writes on arts and culture, in the form of reviews of exhibitions and photo books, as well as long-form essays on cinema and visual art. She has been awarded the Eyebeam – Momus Critical Writing Fellowship for the year 2021. Her writing on art has been published on online platforms such as MARCH: a journal of art & strategy, Art India Magazine, Alternative South Asia Photography, The Karachi Collective, LSE International History, Critical Collective, Write | Art | Connect; additionally she has authored curatorial notes for Galerie Mirchandani Steinruecke, Mumbai; Reliable Copy, Bangalore; and Aicon Contemporary, New York. Her short stories are published in The Gulmohar Quarterly and Hakara Journal; poetry is forthcoming in PIX Quarterly. She authored a curatorial essay for a volume on the exhibition The Constitution of India at 70: Celebrate, Illuminate, Rejuvenate, Defend, published by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust in 2021. She has attended workshops on writing and curatorial studies conducted by Asia Art Archive in India, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art, Kochi Muziris Biennale Foundation, Helter Skelter Magazine, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, and the Momus Emerging Critics Residency 2021.
She is interested in exploring writing on art as a site for lyrical affinities and radical challenges. She lives in New Delhi, India.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit: www.lnaf.org
The winner of Art Scribes Award 2022- 23 is Najrin Islam. She is awarded a curatorial residency at Chateau La Napoule, La Napoule Art Foundation, France.
Najrin Islam is an independent writer and researcher working between Kolkata and New Delhi, India. She is a postgraduate from the School of Arts and Aesthetics (2015 – 2017), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and currently works as a contributing author with Alternative South Asia Photography | art, and Critical Collective. Her research interest is situated at the intersection of image histories, archival politics, and institutional omissions.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit: www.lnaf.org
Sonali Bhagchandani is the winner of Prameya Art Foundation’s Art Scribes Award 2023-24. She is a writer and curator based in Mumbai, India. Her research explores both visual and narrative strategies in story-telling, focusing on intersections between text, image, and the ‘archive’ in contemporary exhibitions and material histories.
She holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London (2022), and a BA in English Literature from St. Xavier’s College (2016). Previously, she attained a Post Graduate Diploma in Modern & Contemporary Indian Art and Curatorial Studies from the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2017). Her writings have been published by Project 88, ART India, The Hindu, JPM Quarterly, and Usawa Literary Review.
LA NAPOULE ART FOUNDATION
Marie Clews founded La Napoule Art Foundation in 1951 in memory of her husband, a prolific sculptor. It was her dream to create an international center for the arts at the Château that would promote cultural exchange and understanding. For over sixty years, LNAF has hosted performances, residencies and exhibitions at the Château de La Napoule by artists the world over. La Napoule Art Foundation offers time and space for creative minds to engage in cultural interchange and meaningful work that impacts the world of the common good.
For more information on the residency, visit: www.lnaf.org
One fine day I got a call from Anahita informing that I have been selected for the Art Scribes award. I was happy and at the same time also surprised that I got the award as it is one of the rare awards instituted to encourage art writers and curators in India. The award covered the flight tickets, a generous stipend, food and lodging for free an offer which one rarely gets in the current economic crisis art world is going through. I am really grateful to Prameya Art Foundation and Clews Center for the Arts/La Napoule Art Foundation for this amazing opportunity.
Very soon I was in France, visiting the old Chateau de La Napoule which was hosting me and the other residents who were part of the 2018 arts residency programme. I still remember the first day I reached in La Napoule. It was raining and it was silent everywhere. The sky was grey and in the next few days it started snowing. It was the first snow in 20-25 years which Mandelieu-la-Napoule had seen. and it was my first exposure to a snow fall. The landscape was highly surreal as on the one side there was the French Riviera and on the other side were the lofty Alps mountains. The Chateau located in front of the French Riviera dates back to 14th century and has since then witnessed many important historic events some of which had physically affected the castle. Its fate was changed in the 19th century when two American couple Henry and Maries Clews decided to buy it and settle there. The castle bears the marks of Henry Clews’s artistic impressions especially in the form of sculptures inspired from “oriental” animal figures. We were served served breakfast and dinner in the dining hall of this magnificent building. We ate, discussed, gossiped relishing the beauty of the landscape and the stained glass doors.
Some of the residents were allotted their studios and rooms in the chateau while some of us stayed in the villa next to the chateau. I too got a room facing the riviera but apart from that I was also allotted a studio space for myself. This was quite unexpected as a writer I never had a dedicated space for myself to sit and think. I took this as an opportunity to initiate a conversation with my fellow residents about what does a studio space mean to them. It opened a new set of thoughts about the idea of studio itself. This was one in the series of conversations which we all took part in. It was an enriching experience as they all were from diverse backgrounds.
I had applied for this residency and the award with an intention to further my engagement with art criticism and its history. Being in France meant that I could spend more time to explore the early history of art criticism by exploring the works of Diderot, Baudrillard, et al. and the role of Salons. Being in Southern France has many advantages. First of all it is a beautiful place with cities like Cannes, Antibes, Marseille, Nice, etc. nearby. I spent most of my time visiting Cannes and Antibes to see how the beauty of this landscape inspired a range of artists belonging to the Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist tradition. My focus shifted to studying the role of landscapes in French Art through a psychoanalytical perspective. I regularly visited the museums nearby to see the works of Picasso, Renoir, Manet, and also got the wonderful opportunity to see the works of Fluxus, Yves Klein, etc. In Marseille’s Mucem I was able to see a rare exhibition of Picasso’s costumes and a brilliant survey of the history of photo books. There we also saw the apartment complex Unité d'habitation designed by the famous Le Corbusier. During my stay for one month I could explore all these historically important sites, museums, cathedrals, islands, etc. and also develop my thoughts on art criticism. Some of the evenings I would go for a bicycle ride on the gorgeous Alps with my fellow resident artist Markus. The residency opened up avenues for me to think, write, read, explore and interact with artists on a daily basis. It gave me the time frame to think and work on the topics which I wanted to work for a long time. Also, La Napoule has become part of my memory forever. I am just waiting to return there some day.
