Samanta Batra Mehta
Samanta Batra Mehta (b. 1975) is a self-taught artist who grew up in Bombay, India, and lives in New York, USA. Through multi-layered works, she reflects on the human condition and the environments we inhabit. Her practice considers identity, personal history, gender constructs, socio-political order and colonial history through drawing, found objects, text, photography and installation.
In a contemporary reimagining of the ‘exquisite corpse’ genre, Mehta often brings together collected antiquarian objects, imagery and texts with her own drawings, creating altered visual encounters through which history can be reconsidered. Within her visual vocabulary, the human form and anatomical imagery are interwoven with foliage and the natural world. Nature, land and landscape become metaphors for the body, and the body for the land, serving as sites of germination, nourishment, degradation, trespass, plunder, colonisation and transgression.
Her influences include history, myth, the natural world, medieval illustration, religious iconography and mystical philosophies. As an Indian artist who has lived in New York for more than a decade, her work frequently engages with dislocation and migration, examining what it means to remain rooted while living in a constant state of flux.
Her first solo exhibition, ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’, presented with Shrine Empire, New Delhi, in 2014, was nominated for the Forbes India Art Award in the ‘Best Debut Solo’ category. Her second solo exhibition, ‘The Journey of Secrets’, was held at Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2015.
Mehta’s work has been presented by galleries at leading art fairs, including Art Stage, Singapore (2010); India Art Fair, New Delhi (2011–2016); Bologna Arte Fiere (2013); Art Basel Hong Kong (2014, 2015); and Art Dubai (2016, 2024).
Selected exhibitions include ‘Seeds, Trees and Montain’, Aga Khan Centre, London, UK (2023); ‘Search for the Empyrean’, Visual Arts Center NJ, USA (2023); ‘Residues & Resonances’, MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale, Turin, Italy (2022); ‘Order/Reorder’, curated by Laura Vookles and Bentley Brown, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York (2022); ‘Hub India: Maximum Minimum’, Artissima Art Fair, Turin, Italy (2021); ‘Reclaimed Baggage’, curated by Nirmal Raja, NIU Art Museum, DeKalb, Illinois, USA (2018); ‘Contain Her’, curated by Katherine Murdock, Trestle Projects, New York, NY (2018); ‘Reading Room’, curated by Amit Jain, a partner exhibition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi (2015); and ‘The Tenth Parallel North: Contemporary Photography of India & South America’, curated by Filippo Maggia, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Italy (2012).
In 2010, Galerie LMD, Paris, invited Mehta to exhibit her work and create a 24-foot-long site-specific mural for the Salon Du Dessin Contemporain at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. Her works were specially curated for The Show Windows, Raw Mango, Mumbai, and the SQW: Lab 2021 fellowship. She participated in Wave Hill’s 2020 Winter Workspace Residency in New York.
Showing with SAC Art Amsterdam at NAP+ 2026, taking place from 17–20 September, 2026 at De Centrale Markthal, Amsterdam.
