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Edited: July 17, 2023
Arushi Vats
Portrait of a woman in daylight, wearing a dark full-sleeved kurta (a loose, long tunic worn in South Asia) and graphite stone earrings.
Pronouns
She/her
Current location
New Delhi, India
Year(s) of residency and/or fellowship
2021, Democracy Machine Fellow

Arushi Vats is a curator and writer based in New Delhi, India.

Vats’ essays have been published in online and print platforms such as Art India Magazine, Runway Journal, Alternative South Asia Photography, LSE International History, Critical Collective, Write | Art | Connect, Frontline, Scroll, Mint, and The Quint; and in catalogues and anthologies by Serendipity Arts Foundation, New Delhi; Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore (forthcoming, December 2022); Global Visual Handbook of Anti-Authoritarian Counterstrategies published by The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (forthcoming, 2022); and Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, India (January 2021).

Vats has written curatorial notes for Galerie Mirchandani Steinruecke, Mumbai; Reliable Copy, Bangalore; Aicon Contemporary, New York. Her short stories are published in nether quarterly, Gulmohar Quarterly, and Hakara Journal; Poetry has been published by PIX Quarterly, India and as part of Zinnia Naqvi’s artist book “Dear Nani” by Anchorless Press, Canada. She is the associate editor for Fiction at Alternative South Asia Photography.

Vats was the recipient of the Momus – Eyebeam Critical Writing Fellowship in 2021 and the Art Scribes Award in 2021. She has conducted workshops on critical writing for Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, Khoj International Artists Association, and Art Chain India. She has attended residencies at La Napoule Art Foundation, France (2022) and the digital Momus Emerging Critics Residency (2021).

More about Arushi Vats

The 2021-22 Critical Writing Fellow has been awarded to Arushi Vats. a New Delhi-based arts, literary, and culture writer. Vats astounded us with the clarity of her vision, the strength of her early publishing experience (including platforms such as MARCH: a journal of art & strategy, Alternative South Asia Photography, The Karachi Collective, and Critical Collective, among others), and the depth of her resonance with mentor Nora N. Khan. Vats discusses her ambition to write on art “as a site for both lyrical affinities and radical challenges.” In addition to publishing in cultural venues including LSE International History and Write | Art | Connect, Vats has published short stories and poetry in The Gulmohar Quarterly, Hakara Journal, and PIX Quarterly. She has also authored several curatorial essays, including a volume titled The Constitution of India at 70: Celebrate, Illuminate, Rejuvenate, Defend, published by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust in 2021.

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