Bio
Vanshika Agrawal was born in Jalaun, India, in 1999. She lives and works in Rome. She got her Master's in Painting from the Rome University of Fine Arts, RUFA. Her work blends poetry, performances, paintings, drawings, and installations to create ephemeral spaces that reflect on the continuum of life. She is inclined towards the notion of “white,” not as a colour but as a sensory experience—an idea influenced by Kenya Hara. White becomes a metaphor for ambiguity and stillness, allowing us to reconnect with unspoken narratives. Recontextualising cultural semiotics to uncover the emotional and historical labour embedded in them. Her work emphasises collective histories that emerge throughout a person's lifetime concerning the body's connection to its immediate surroundings.
She has exhibited in Austria, China, Egypt, and Italy and has private collectors in Rome and Berlin. She has been awarded “6 ARTISTA Project Grant for Young Artists 2025-2026”, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome and “Premio Paolo VI 2025”, Collezione Paolo VI, Brescia.
Her solo exhibitions include Just Ignore It, Maja Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2022); Tra Loro, Galleria GSL, San Lorenzo, Rome (2023); Dust to Dust, Studio 110, Rome (2024)
Among her group exhibitions: Something Else Symposium, Citadel, Cairo; Art Auction 13, Weserhalle, Berlin; Subterranean Frequencies, Studio Arte Pisani, Rome; Feet of Clay, American Academy in Rome; Giovani Generazioni in Umbria, Museo Dinamico del Laterizio e delle Terracotte, Marsciano, Perugia; Moriana, AAIE Art Center for Contemporary Art, Rome; Dake Museum of Art, Chengdu, China; Luci Nel Buio, Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence ; Rivers and Roads, Meandering Stories of India, AAIE Art Center for Contemporary Art, Rome; Vicino Lontano, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna, Mirò Hall of UNESCO, Paris; Biennale di Lucca Cartasia, Lucca; Accade, La Nuova Pesa, Rome. In 2023, she was an artist in residence at Sommer.Frische.Kunst in Bad Gastein, Austria.
Research
Vanshika Agrawal’s artistic practice combines multiple expressive media, including painting, drawing, photography, installations, video, and performance. This multidisciplinary approach allows the artist to develop works that reflect in a complex and articulated manner on the essence of humanity, emphasizing the transient and fragile nature of human existence. Her works address universal themes such as the fragility of life, change, impermanence, and temporality, offering an intimate and meditative perspective on the human condition. Through an approach that blends symbolic and conceptual elements, Agrawal invites viewers to confront their perceptions of time, memory, and identity, creating a dialogue between the individual and the universal.
Vanshika Agrawal’s work is an investigation into the complexity of existence, where pain and joy intertwine within a continuum of relationships and meanings. Her art aims to explore and depict the deepest nuances of the human soul, fostering critical reflection on contemporary conditions and the fleeting nature of life.
_ Text by Maria Teresa Capacchione
Exhibitons
2025
Something Else Symposium, Group Show, Citadel, Cairo
2024
Subterranean Frequencies, Group Show, Studio Pisani, Rome
Feet of Clay, Performance, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Curated by Johanne Affricott
Dust to Dust, Solo show, Studio 110, Rome, curated by Maria Teresa Capacchione
Moriana, Group Exhibition, AAIE Art Center for Contemporary Art, Rome, Curated by Yaning Zhu Giovani Generazioni in Umbria, Museo Dinamico del Laterizio e delle Terrecotte, Marsciano, Perugia
2023
Luci Nel Buio, Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
We Will Meet After The Fall/ Mamma, Double Exhibition, Curated by Silvia Marsano, RUFA Space, Rome
Dinoysus, Group Exhibition, Dake Art Museum, Chengdu, China
Dake Museum of Art, collective exhibition, Chengdu, China
Tra Loro, solo show, Galleria GSL, San Lorenzo, Rome, curated by Alessandro Martina
Kunstresidenz Exhibitions at Kraftwerk, Bad Gastein, Austria
2022
Rivers and Roads, Meandering Stories of India, AAIE Art Center for Contemporary Art, Rome
Vicino/ Lontano at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, promoted by the Italian National Commission for UNESCO
Co-performed Interior Pull by Florence Peake at Forof, Rome, produced in partnership with Richard Saltoun Gallery
0 to 0 at AAIE Art Center for Contemporary Art, Rome
Abitudine Artistica Ideologia Eccellente, AAIE Art Center for Contemporary Art, Rome
Lucca Biennale Cartasia, Indoor, Lucca, curated by Giacomo Pecchia
Accade, La Nuova Pesa, Rome, curated by Andrea Aquilanti and Fabrizio Pizzuto
Co-performed IFIF Performance by Emily Mast, Villa Medici, Rome, curated by Julie Pelligrini
Just Ignore It (solo show), Maja Arte Contemporanea, Rome, curated by Marta Jovanovic`
Ladispolaneamente, collective exhibition, Ladispoli, curated by Elisa Selli
Because I Could not stop for Death, double exhibition, RUFA Space, Rome
2021
Grace Before The End, at ROMA ART WEEK, sixth edition (25-30 October)
Grace Before The End, AAIE Art Center for Contemporary Art, Rome
D31 Online Summer Exhibition, Doncaster, UK
Totems of a collective narrative, collective exhibition, RUFA Space, Rome
Performance Cluster, collective exhibition, RUFA Space, Rome
Sacrality, a collaborative site-specific installation, collective exhibition, RUFA Space
27Art Point, Amritsar, India
2020 - 2019
27Art Point, Amritsar, India