An Art Exhibition by the ‘Fearless Foundation for the Arts’ – Travancore Palace, New Delhi
Art of Liberation marks the official launch of the Fearless Foundation for the Arts . Curated by Shilo Shiv Suleman (Founder & Curator, Fearless Foundation for the Arts) with Curatorial Advisor Myna Mukherjee and Co-host Tara Lal, the exhibition brings together artists, activists, and cultural visionaries from South Asia and beyond.
As the city lights up with fire, the exhibition reminds audiences that fire is a liberatory force, one that allows people to imagine and shape new worlds. From the burning fires of the youth-led Nepali revolution, to the resistance against Shia genocide in Pakistan, and the power of the Aragalaya movement in Sri Lanka, the exhibition features works that emerge from the heart of people’s movements.
After 13 years of creating work across borders and contexts, the Fearless Foundation for the Arts team returns to its home city to share its journey and celebrate alongside some of the most powerful voices from India.
The exhibition will be held from October 16 to 21, 2025, at Travancore Palace, New Delhi.
As an addition and hosted by Shilo Shiv Suleman, alongside Myna Mukherjee, an evening during the course of the show, will feature performances and words by Aamir Aziz, Shruti Vishwanathan, Mahi G, and Delhi Sultanate.
The following artists from across South Asia will showcase their work:
Krisha Joshi (Nepal) – Guardians of Mukkumlung and the Yakthung resistance
Krisha Joshi is an artist, designer, and illustrator from Kathmandu. Her poster pays homage to Mukkumlung, a sacred land of the Yakthung (Limbu) community under threat from the Pathibhara Cable Car Project. Through her art, she amplifies voices resisting displacement and environmental destruction.
Luluwa Lokhandwala (Pakistan) – The Shia Alam reborn as a phoenix of resilience
Luluwa Lokhandwala, a Bohri Shia Muslim artist from Karachi, reimagines the Alam, a sacred Shia symbol, as a phoenix of resistance. Her work explores spirituality, ethnicity, and feminism, reminding viewers that silence in the face of oppression is complicity.
Ahsana Angona (Bangladesh) – Women warriors leading Bangladesh’s revolutions.
Ahsana Nasreen Hoque Angona is a visual artist from Bogura whose poster honors women’s leadership across Bangladesh’s revolutions from 1971 to 2024. Through her work, she celebrates women as warriors who continue to paint the country’s call for justice.
Vicky Shahjehan (Sri Lanka) – Henna flames lighting the Aragalaya struggle.
Vicky Shahjehan, a trans activist and artist from Colombo’s Slave Island, uses henna as a political tool. Her poster transforms Sri Lanka into a flame, symbolizing the unity and courage of the 2022 Aragalaya protests that ousted a corrupt regime.
Shilo Shiv Suleman (India) – Women of Shaheen Bagh standing guard over India’s democracy.
In her poster, Shilo Shiv Suleman honors the women of Shaheen Bagh — whose peaceful sit-in became a symbol of resistance against discriminatory citizenship laws. Her work reaffirms India’s constitutional pluralism and collective courage.
Chuu Wai Nyein (Myanmar) – Girls playing with snakes, fearless in the face of terror
Chuu Wai Nyein, an exiled artist from Mandalay now based in France, portrays resilience amid the 2021 Myanmar coup. Her image of girls playing with snakes captures women’s defiance and the power of confronting fear through art.
Zahra Khodadaddi (Afghanistan) – Twisted wreckage as testimony to war’s aftermath.
Afghan artist and photographer Zahra Khodadadi explores the aftermath of war and women’s erasure under Taliban rule. Her series Made in Where? uses imagery of wrecked cars to reflect on identity, survival, and the scars of conflict.
Negin Rezaie (Iran) – A queer lion of resistance, inked in henna and poetry.
Iranian artist and curator Negin Rezaie reclaims ancestral stories of resistance through henna and poetry. Her poster, inspired by “Women, Life, Freedom,” transforms the lion, once a masculine symbol into a gender-fluid emblem of care and defiance.
