Sreejata Roy is a visual artist and a community art practitioner, who has worked in low-income neighbourhoods in Delhi for many years. For nearly a decade she has been using conventional as well as mixed and digital media to produce narratives that raise questions and trigger debates. In doing so she continues her exploration of the relationship of art and public spaces.

In the Khirki area, her students and she painted the wall near a basement chai shop in their neighbourhood. The painting was seven girls clad in white salwar kameezes sitting on a bench, chatting with each other and sipping tea against an ochre background. But as mundane as tea drinking seems as an activity, it wasn’t a depiction of reality. Neighbourhood chai shops are overwhelmingly male spaces, where women are unwelcome. This painting became a point of discussion, a trigger for a rethink. That’s what Sreejata art does; it creates a dialogue about public spaces and creating equity for all.

Sreejata Roy’s Achievements

She was awarded the Overseas Research Scholarship, UK and the National Scholarship, India

She was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) for developing a public art project in 2008-09. This took the form of completely reshaping a neglected municipal park.