Nilima Sheikh
Fractured SkiesThis is the first publication to accompany an international exhibition dedicated to the celebrated Indian artist Nilima Sheikh. The book ships 30th November 2026. Pre-order now
The volume features new essays by leading curators, scholars and critics alongside a selection of Sheikh’s own writings assembled from across several decades. Together, these texts illuminate the evolution of her artistic language and her sustained engagement with questions of place, gender, memory and historical reckoning.
Roobina Karode is artistic director and chief curator at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi. She is co-curator of the exhibition Nilima Sheikh: Fractured Skies and editor of this volume. Karode is on
the advisory council of the Asia Society India Centre.
Cara Manes is associate curator in the department of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She is co-curator of the exhibition Nilima Sheikh: Fractured Skies. Manes has organized or co-organized numerous exhibitions, including Ruth Asawa:
A Retrospective (Oct 2025 – Feb 2026) and Alexander Calder: Modern From
the Start (2021).
Avijna Bhattacharya is senior curator
(visual arts) at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi. Her recent projects include Extraordinary Line(2025) and Purvaee: Evoking Pedagogic Lineages
(2024), and, as assistant curator,
The Rooted Nomad: M.F. Husain (2024) and Pop South Asia (2023).
Khushmi Mehta is completing a Ph.D. in art history at the City University of New York on the Baroda School. She is the 2025–27 Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington,
D.C. She has previously held curatorial and research positions at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Newark Museum of Art, the Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore, Christie’s New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Deeksha Nath is a curator and cultural theorist. Her exhibitions and research have been presented internationally
at institutions including the Devi Art Foundation and Kiran Nadar Museum
of Art in New Delhi, Asia House London, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Nath was Desk Editor at ArtAsiaPacific for over 20 years. She is a Trustee of Artreach India, an arts education charity working with vulnerable communities across India.
INTRODUCTION by Ranjana Dave
ESSAYS
• Nilima Sheikh: Fractured Skies by Roobina Karode
• Reading 'We Must Bear' by Cara Manes
• Carrying Across: Transcultural Memories and Creative Lineages by Avijna Bhattacharya
• Acts of Care by Deeksha Nath
• Lives Drawn Together: Friendship, Motherhood, and Community in Nilima Sheikh’s Painted Drawings by Khushmi Mehta
• The Privilege of Painting: Texts and Interviews, 1970s–2023 by Nilima Sheikh
CATALOGUE
About the Artist
List of Key Exhibitions
List of Artworks
About KNMA
Acknowledgements
| ISBN | 9789394501249 |
| Pages | 204 |
| Number of illustrations | 145 |
| Size | 9 x 10.5" (229 x 267 mm), hc-plc |
| Date of Publishing | 30/11/26 |
| Language(s) | English |
| Co-publisher(s) | Mapin Publishing |
| Rights Available | World Rights |
Lowry, Director of the MoMA
Sheikh is exceptional among Indian modernist artists in her unflinching focus on divisive social and political issues.
Arthur Lubow, The New York Times on Nilima Sheikh: Fractured Skies at MoMA
"[Sheikh’s] work was part of my learning experience. I took it for granted.”
—Shahzia Sikander
“At first glance, these are ravishing images: richly-coloured scenes of bucolic joy are interspersed with visual quotes from ancient miniatures and Kashmiri folktales. Yet, stay with them and something more troubling emerges.”
—Jennifer Higgie, FRIEZE on Sheikh's work at documenta 14, Athens, 2017
"One of South Asia’s most prominent artists, whose paintings deal with some of the most pressing issues in the region through her brilliant visual language of color and form.”
—Jinah Kim, Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Harvard University