Meet the Artists

Spandita Malik (b. 1995) is an Indian visual artist based in New York City whose practice weaves together photography, embroidery, and community collaboration to address urgent issues surrounding women’s rights and gendered violence. Deeply rooted in social practice and expanded documentary, her work centers the lived experiences of women across India—reframing traditional narratives and challenging colonial aesthetics in documentary photography. Through a distinctive process of photographic surface embroidery, Malik collaborates directly with women to stitch their stories into fabric and image, creating space for shared authorship and healing.

Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, 21c Museum Hotels, Rockefeller Capital Management, Robert Mann Gallery, Jane Lombard Gallery, and the Sharjah Art Foundation, among others. She is a recipient of several prestigious honors, such as the V&A Parasol Foundation Prize for Women in Photography, Google’s Creator Labs Photo Fund, the Women Photograph Project Grant, The 30: New and Emerging Photographers Award, the En Foco Photography Fellowship, and the Firecracker Photographic Grant.

Malik has held artist residencies at Light Work, LMCC Workspace, Charlotte Street Foundation,

Center for Photography at Woodstock, Baxter St Workspace, and the PES Feminist Incubator. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue India, The Washington Post, Marie Claire, The Times (UK), Harper’s Magazine, Musée Magazine, Buzzfeed, Elephant Magazine, and more. She earned her MFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design in 2019. Malik continues to explore themes of resistance, identity, and interdependence through an intersectional feminist lens, grounded in care and collaboration.