Kirtika Kain

About Kirtika Kain (she/her)

Kirtika Kain is an early career artist, writer and educator working on Dharug land, Western Sydney. Combining elements of sculpture, experimental printmaking and painting, Kain’s practice draws from her Subaltern Caste lineage and investigates hybridity, ancestral memory and the complexities of race and caste in the diaspora. Her work is influenced by historical and family archives, and the legacy of anti-caste literature and song.

Kain’s labour-intensive studio practice utilises materials of ritual, including pigments, waxes and golds, reclaiming their traditional religiosity. The quality of timeless silence and sacredness that these materials uphold are central in her work. Kirtika’s visual representations tell a story of personal and collective histories, reflecting on the vastness and dimensionality of Dalit being. Kirtika’s current research is around Dalit feminist writings of resistance, ancient cultural practices from Dalit communities and anti-caste organisations in the Indian diaspora.

Biography

Kirtika Kain was a recipient of the Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award in 2017, the Art Incubator Grant and Dyason Bequest, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and a finalist in the Churchill Fellowship and numerous art prizes including Blacktown Art Prize (2017, 2019). In 2020, Kirtika was a Paramatta Artists Studio artist and was a finalist in the Create NSW Emerging Artist Fellowship at Artspace. She has been an artist in residence at the British School at Rome in 2019 and the Amant Siena Summer Residency in 2022.

Kirtika has recently exhibited in the projects Wake Up Call for my Ancestors, Oyoun, Berlin and Plea to the Foreigner, African Biennale of Photography, Mali, collaborating with Dalit artists and thinkers within India and the diaspora. She has recently shown a solo exhibition of works titles Blue Bloods at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery and is exhibiting a new commission for the 24th Biennale of Sydney.