Alka Pande

Bio

Dr Alka Pande is an art historian who taught Art History at Panjab University for more than two decades. She has also taught Art and Aesthetics at the Delhi College of Art, NID and the DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore. Her major fields of interest are gender identity and sexuality, and traditional arts. Dr Pande, under the aegis of the Charles Wallace India Trust, conducted postdoctoral research in critical art theory at Goldsmiths, University of London.

In 2006, she was awarded the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters- an honour bequeathed by the French government to recognize significant contributions in the fields of art and literature. In 2009, she received the Australian-India Council Special Award for her contribution to Indian art. In 2015, she was awarded L’Oreal Paris Femina Women under Design and Arts and Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi honours-in recognition of her distinguished contribution to art-with Amrita Sher-Gil Samman.

She has extensively written and edited books on Indian aesthetics, culture and photography. Some of her prominent books includes : Body Sutra (2019), Third Eye: Photography and Ways of Seeing (2019), Panchtattvas: The Road Ahead (2017), Voices and Images (2015), Divine Gesture: The Magnificence of Mewar Spirituality (2016), Musicscapes: The Multiple Emotions of Indian Music (2016), Theatrescapes: Experience Rasas (2014), Mukhwas: Indian Food through the Ages (2013), Shringara: The Many faces of Indian Beauty (2011), Leela: An Erotic Play of Verse and Art (2009), The New Age Kama Sutra for Women (2006), Indian Art: The New International Sensation (2008), The Collector’s Handbook (2005), Ardhanarishvara the Androgyne: Probing the Gender Within (2004), Indian Erotica (2002), From Disco Lights to Mustard Fields: A Study of the Folk Instruments and Performers of Panjab (1999) to name a few. She is the chief editor of a theme-based IHC Visual Arts Journal including Art Journal (2017-18), Land Art with special reference to Aravallis (2017), Art in Public Spaces (2016), Creative Consumerism: Art Market and Beyond (2014), Cross Culture: Enacted Aesthetic: with Special Reference to Rabindranath Tagore (2011), New Media (2009), Abhyas (2008), Notions of India (2007), Exploring Art and Perception (2006), Multiple Voices (2005), Design (2004), Photography (2003), Internationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Globalisation (2002), and Understanding Art (2001). Dr Pande has authorised a set of books on Indian visual culture especially focused on Indian arts and aesthetics.

Dr Pande has been passionately involved with the world of art for more than three decades. She has been responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad. Dr Pande was the artistic director of photography biennale Habitat Photosphere, a photography award instituted by India Habitat Centre. Her curatorial projects include the exhibitions, The Tree from the Seed at the Henie-Onstad Art Centre, Oslo; India Awakens Underthe Banyan Tree at the Essl Museum, Vienna; and The Kama Sutra: Spirituality and Eroticism in Indian Art at the Pinacotheque, Paris, to name a few. Dr Pande was closely involved with South Central Zone Cultural Centre unique initiative project titled Documentation of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Resources. In the capacity of a curator, Dr Pande held an exhibition titled Tat Tvam Asi (That Thou Art) at IGNCA to showcase traditional arts, creative photographs, and video installations which were produced during a month-long art camp at the Simhastha Kumbh, Ujjain (2016). Dr Pande has set up the Sculpture Gallery at the City Palace Museum, Udaipur as well as an Outdoor Sculpture Park at Fateh Prakash Palace and Lake Palace in Udaipur for the Indian Heritage Hotels.

Dr Pande is responsible for setting-up museums: Bihar Museum, Divine Gesture, Udaipur City Palace, Kanha Museum, Singinawa. She is on the advisory of the Bihar Museum. Dr Pande also set up the Bihar Museum Biennale in 2021 and is now the chief curator for the Bihar Museum Biennale 2. Currently, Dr Pande is a consultant art advisor and curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi (India).