Indian Artists Spandita Malik, Karan Shrestha to showcase South Asian stories at Paris photo 2026

Indian-origin artists Spandita Malik and Karan Shrestha will showcase their photographic works at Paris Photo 2026, as TAK Contemporary makes its debut in the International Photography Fair’s Voices Sector, scheduled to be held from November 12 to 15 at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Curated by Zasha Colah and Francesco Zanot, the presentation brings together the practices of Malik and Shrestha, whose works explore themes of gender-based violence, displacement, identity, political conflict and structural inequality through photography and multidisciplinary art.

Born in India in 1995 and currently based in Paris, Malik’s practice centres on women’s rights and gender-based violence. Her collaborative projects involve women from across India, whose portraits are transferred onto locally produced muslin or khadi fabric and embellished with traditional embroidery. The process enables the women to actively participate in shaping their own representation.

Drawing on traditional Indian embroidery techniques such as phulkari, zardozi and gota-patti, Malik examines themes of women’s agency, resilience and self-expression. Through projects such as Nārī and Vadhu: The Embroidered Bride, she uses textile-based practices to explore women’s lived experiences and challenge conventional representations of femininity.

Shrestha, born in Nepal in 1985, works between Kathmandu and Delhi. His multidisciplinary practice brings together photography, film, drawing, sculpture and archival research to examine Nepal’s political history, collective memory, displacement and environmental transformations.

His work We Exist (2025) draws attention to the citizenship challenges faced by children in Nepal’s Chitwan and Nawalparasi districts. According to the exhibition catalogue, restrictive provisions in Nepal’s 2015 Constitution affect children born to single mothers or fathers who refuse to acknowledge them, leaving them vulnerable to statelessness.

Founded in 2023 by three Paris-based curators of Indian origin, TAK Contemporary focuses on promoting contemporary art from South Asia and its diaspora in Europe. The collective is also set to open its first permanent space at 21 rue Béranger in Paris’s third arrondissement, following three years of activity.

Through its presentation at Paris Photo 2026, TAK Contemporary brings together two distinct artistic perspectives that use photography and multidisciplinary practices to document overlooked histories, question established narratives and foreground the experiences of marginalised communities.