Varsha Nair

Varsha Nair is an interdisciplinary artist based in Baroda, India, where she studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University.  Her works and projects have been exhibited internationally, including at Tate Modern, London, Art in General, New York, Cities on the Move 6, Bangkok, WTF Gallery, Bangkok, Lodypop, Basel, and most recently at documenta 15, Kassel.

Nair lived in Thailand from 1995 to 2019 where, as one of the key co-organizers of Womanifesto, she was instrumental in conceptualising projects that stretch beyond the traditional model of biennial exhibition making to produce intergenerational and cross-disciplinary workshops, collaborations, and networks.

She has been invited to present at various symposia, including as keynote speaker for the symposium, In Light of Crisis: The Fraught Significations of Contemporary Biennials held at Zurich University (May 2022). Her texts have been published in n paradoxa, Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, and Ctrl+P Journal of Contemporary Art of which she is Editorial Board member. Nair is currently Guest Lecturer with the Masters of Arts Program at HSLU, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. 

Nair is one of the artist-organisers of the exhibition, Womanifesto: Flowing Connections held at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre from September - December 2023. She has been one of the key figures in organising Womanifesto and along with Nitaya Ueareeworakul, has been instrumental to all of the Womanifesto projects starting from the first exhibition in 1997 onwards.

In 2020, she engaged with artists during the covid pandemic for Womanifesto 2020: Gatherings project which exhibited at the Guangzhou Triennial and at Guangzhou Art Museum, China. As part of this project Nair presented Voices from the Courtyard, a performance which grew out of discussions of women’s invisible labour — in particular during lockdown — and giving louder voices to these women.

Portrait by Lena Erikkson.