(b. 1990)
Ayesha Singh examines built architecture as spaces that embed power dynamics, expose the intricate politics inherent in nation-building exercises, migration, displacement, and functions as a location of identity – embodying aspiration, desire, and belief. Through critical spatial interventions that emphasize collaboration and coexistence her works aim to counter established narratives to unpack layers of alteration and erasure of history through construction, restoration, and destruction. This results in Singh's research being experienced through participatory performances with poetry, kinetic sculptures, sculptural line-drawings, public installations of scaffold and images that are created with community involvement, video, sculpture and often graphite drawings on paper.
Singh completed her MFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has exhibited in solo and group shows worldwide including at Sculpture by the Sea, Sydney (2024); NMACC, Mumbai (2024), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2023); The Wolfsonian, Miami (2023); Van Gogh House, London (2023-2022); Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria (2021); Palazzo Madama/Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, Turin (2021); Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing (2018); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire (2017); Hyde Park Art Centre, Chicago (2017); University of Cambridge, Cambridge (2014).
Singh was recently awarded the Lui Shimming Art Foundation Grant, New York (2024), Cross-Hatchings: New Delhi-Perth Residency by Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) and Khoj, Perth (2023), the Van Gogh House Residency, London (2022) and received the Emerging Artist of the Year award from India Today (2020). In addition, she has received the Ellies Creator Award from Oolite Arts (former Art Centre/South Florida), USA (2018-19); the Civil Society Institute Fellowship at Vermont Studio Centre, USA (2018); and the Science & Culture Initiative Grant from the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017-18).
Her work is a part of public collections including the Cincinnati Art Museum, USA; Burger Collection, Hong Kong; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK; Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bangalore; and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and The Partition Museum, both in New Delhi.
Singh is based in New Delhi, India.