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| ARTISTIC PRACTICE Sonia Mehra Chawla has an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, photographer, and researcher. Working at the intersection of art and science, her practice explores notions of ecology, sustainability, and conservation through a multispecies lens. Sonia works in a variety of mediums, such as printmaking, photography, drawing, video, and the transmedia installation. Through her multidisciplinary practice, Sonia explores and examines the multifaceted relationship between colonial power and scientific knowledge, providing insights into botanical politics and conflicts, the often-overlooked histories of colonial capitalism, and the challenges of our possible future(s). Her works often question and destabilize colonial legacies, constructs, and entanglements, exploring new ways of seeing through embodied memories. Sonia's work frequently originates from ongoing collaborations with scientific institutions, research organizations, cultural organizations, and nonprofit groups both in India and internationally, alongside her interactions with fishing communities, agricultural and farming groups, as well as tribal and indigenous populations of India. Sonia focuses on specific locations and microhistories in her process-oriented, research-based practice. Through her artistic endeavors, she investigates how local sites contribute to global changes, what drives these shifts, the significance of scale, the interaction between macrostructures and micro agencies, and the methods by which local initiatives for adaptation and mitigation can be developed and embraced. In addition, Sonia’s practice marks her close engagement with the present and future of India’s coastal ecosystems and mangrove forests. Her practice combines a commitment to the processes of research with fidelity to the poetics of the artwork, bringing together a variety of impulses, ranging from microscopic details of bacterial and microbial cultures to documentary cinematic studies of marginalized groups whose eco-sensitive occupations have suffered as a result of the decline in their environment. Through her artistic practice, Sonia Mehra Chawla investigates, analyzes, re-evaluates, and reimagines spaces that lie at the intersection of art and science, social and natural history, and the self in relation to others. She focuses on the fundamental elements of how humans engage with nature, which includes both built environments and unspoiled wilderness, while delving into the narratives and relationships between human and non-human entities in the Anthropocene. | |
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BIOGRAPHY Sonia Mehra Chawla is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in New Delhi, India. Operating at the intersection of art and science, her artistic endeavours investigate concepts of ecology, sustainability, and conservation through a multispecies perspective. Sonia received two fellowships and grants in the visual arts from the British Council and Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) in 2014 and 2022. She is an awardee and fellow of the International Art+ Science programme instituted by Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi and Wellcome Trust UK/DBT India Alliance. She is a fellow of the New Alphabet School for practice-based research at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin with contributions from 2019 to 2022. Furthermore, Chawla was awarded a long-term international fellowship and residency in the field of Social Sciences by Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany from 2019 to 2022, for the art, science and business programme of the Akademie. Sonia is a fellow of ‘Plants on Paper: curatorial practice and the decolonization of collections of scientific prints and drawings’, a Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Getty Foundation, and Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh initiative and collaboration (2024-25). Sonia has recently received a visual arts and research fellowship from ifa-Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (The Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) Germany under the Artists Contacts Program for international cultural exchange in 2026. Sonia Mehra Chawla has participated in curated projects at several International Museums and Institutions such as the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India), Inverlieth House Museum, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ifa Galerie, Stuttgart, Tate Modern, London, Essl Museum of Contemporary Art, Austria, Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA Yinchuan, China, Künstlerhaus, Albertina Modern, Vienna, Wardlaw Museum, University of St Andrews, UK, Science Gallery, Bengaluru, Indian Museum, Kolkata, Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi, Today Art Museum, Beijing, British Council, New Delhi, Goethe-Institut Mumbai, Colombo, Pune and Delhi, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Khoj, New Delhi, National Institute of Design-NID Ahmedabad and Edinburgh Printmakers, Scotland. Sonia’s recent exhibitions from 2021-2025 include, 'Silent Archive', curated by Emma Nicolson, Inverleith House Museum, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund's Transformative Grant In partnership with Serpentine Galleries London (2024), 'Ghosts in Machines', Special Project at Serendipity Arts Festival 2024, curated by Damian Christinger, Alien Worlds, co-organized by Dr Claire Cousins, Dr Emily Finer and Emma Puranen, Wardlaw Museum, University of St Andrews, Scotland (2024), Critical Zones, a travelling exhibition in South Asia, co-produced by ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, and Goethe-Institut, South Asia (2022-24), Conceptualized by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, Co-curated by Daria Mille, Mira Hirtz and Bettina Korintenberg, ‘The Beauty of Early Life.Traces of Early Life’, curated by Norbert Lenz and Peter Weibel, co-curated by Eduard Harms, Hannah Jung, and Philipp Ziegler, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2022), ‘New Natures: A Terrible Beauty is Born’, curated by Ravi Agarwal & curator of Literature Ranjit Hoskote, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Mumbai (2022), ‘Evolutionary Potential’, solo exhibition, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart in collaboration with the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin (2022), 'From Where We Stand', International travelling exhibition, part of British Council’s landmark initiative, ‘India/UK Together Season of Culture’ at Design Gallery, National Institute of Design-NID Ahmedabad, British Council, New Delhi, and Edinburgh Printmakers UK (2022), ‘The Rooted Sea’, solo exhibition curated by ASCUS Art & Science, Summerhall, Edinburgh, in collaboration with Edinburgh Science Festival 2022, (UN)Containable Life, a comprehensive solo exhibition in the UAE, spanning a decade of artistic practice, 1x1 Art Gallery, Dubai.(2021), ‘Entanglements of Time & Tide’, solo exhibition, Castle Mills, Edinburgh Printmakers, in collaboration with Marine Scotland, Creative Scotland, and ASCUS Art & Science, Edinburgh (2021-22), ‘Driving the Human’ at Radialsystem, Berlin, jointly presented by ZKM | Center for Art & Media Karlsruhe, acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Germany, Forecast Berlin, and Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (2021) and ‘The Essl Collection’ at Albertina Modern, Vienna. (2021)  Download CV | |