Rithika Merchant

Rithika Merchant is a visual artist from Mumbai (Bombay), India. Her work explores comparative mythology as well as science and speculative fiction, featuring creatures and symbolism that are part of her personal visual vocabulary. She creates bodies of work that visually link to our collective past as well as imagines possible new worlds which we may come to inhabit. Nature plays a pivotal role in her work and is emphasised by the use of organic shapes and non-saturated colours. Her paintings and collages are made using a combination of watercolour and cut paper elements, drawing on 17th century botanical prints and folk art.

Merchant undertook Hellenic International Studies In The Arts in Paros, Greece (2006) before receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from Parsons School of Design, New York, U.S.A. (2008). Her residencies, across the world, includes: Convento São Francsico De Mertola Mertola, Portugal (2008); Arthouse Wolfsberg/Garana, Garana, Romania (2012 and 2016); Visual Arts Residency, Cincsor, Romania (2019) and Villa Saint-Louis Ndar, Saint-Louis, Senegal (2022).

Merchant has also participated in several international art fairs and exhibitions like Swab Art Fair (presented by Galeria Espai b), Barcelona, Spain (2012); Metro Curates Art Fair (presented by Stephen Romano Gallery), The Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Art Central (presented by The Sovereign Art Foundation), Hong Kong SAR (2021); India Art Fair (presented by TARQ), New Delhi (2022); DDessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair (presented by Galerie LJ), Paris (2022); KIAF Seoul (presented by Galerie LJ) Seoul (2023) and Asia Now (presented by Galerie LJ), Paris (2024).

In 2024 she showed her works at The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia (where she also presented an interactive project If the Seeds Chose Where to Grow as part of Asia Pacific Triennial Kids at QAGOMA’s Children’s Art Center). Other recent projects include the monumental installation The Flowers We Grew (2025) at the Musée Rodin in Paris, composed of nine paintings – transformed into large-scale textile panels by The Chanakya School of Craft. The installation was commissioned by Maria Grazia Chiuri as part of the scenography for the Dior haute couture SS25 show.

This was not Merchant’s first venture into the world of haute couture. She already had a, well established, collaboration with French fashion house Chloé, working on multiple collections for which she was awarded the Vogue India Young Achiever of the Year Award at its Women of the Year Awards 2018, as well as being named one of Vogue Magazine’s VogueWorld 100 Creative Voices. She is also the winner of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2021 - Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize (for her painting Saudade) and Le Prix DDessin Paris ’21.

Her work has been written about in Art Asia Pacific, Art India, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Verve Magazine, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Hyperallergic, Architectural Digest, and others. Merchants work is held in public and private collections including The Bunker Artspace, Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody; Chloe Archive; Christian Dior Archive; Collection de Bueil & Ract-Madoux; Firestorm Foundation; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art; Palais Galliera | Musée de la mode de la Ville de Paris; Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art; Reliance Foundation; Samdani Arts Foundation; The Sarmaya Arts Foundation and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Fashion Resource Centre).

Amongst her many group exhibitions could be mentioned Snowball, Articule Gallery, Montréal, Québec, Canada (2011); Sobre El Paper, Galeria Espai b, Barcelona, Spain (2012); Xmas 12/ The Big Group Show, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen (2012); Inventari, Galeria Espai b, Barcelona, Spain (2013); Of The Hand, Madder Moon Gallery, Singapore (2013); Crest of the Strawberry Moon, Gospel Flat Farm, Bolinas, California, U.S.A. (2013); Collectiva de Petit Format, Galeria Espai b, Barcelona, Spain (2014); In Missa Interfectionis, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2014); Abundantia Cornu Copiae, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2014); In Missa Interfectionis Vernum, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Not Man The Less, But Nature More, Summerhall, Edinburgh, U.K. (2015); Rite of Passage, Art*ry Gallery, Fort Kochi, Kerala, India (2015); Opus Hypnagogia: Sacred Spaces of the Visionary and Vernacular, The Morbid Anatomy Museum, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Magica Sexualis, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Hieroglyphica, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Language of the Birds: Occult and Art, 80WSE Gallery, New York, U.S.A. (2016); Statim Finis, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2016); Hortus Deliciarum, Arthouse Wolfsberg/Garana, Garana, Romania (2016); Gallery III, Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. (2016); Roots to Healing, Northrup Gallery, Goldstein Museum of Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. (2017); G/rove, Latitude 28, New Delhi (2017); To talk to the worms and the stars, The New Gallery, Calgary, Canada (2017); This Burning Land Belongs To You (presented by TARQ for Camden Kala, UK/India Year of Culture),Swiss Cottage Gallery, London (2017); State of Art, Mazda Space, Barcelona, Spain (2017); Sensorium / The End Is Only The Beginning, Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, Goa, India (2018); Portal, October Gallery, London (2018); Homo Faber / Fashion Inside and Out, The Michelangelo Foundation, Venice, Italy (2018); We See You, We Hear You, The Hospital Club Gallery, London (2018); Breaking Barriers, Jehangir Art Gallery/Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai, India (2018); The Dot that went for a walk, The Royal Opera House, Mumbai, India (2019); Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam/ The World Is One Family, Kolkata Centre For Creativity, Emami Art, Kolkata, India (2019); Chloe Couture, National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kiev, (2019); Fata In Fata/ Face To Face, Fortified Church, Cincsor, Romania (2019); Work in Progress, Galeria Bien Cuadrado, Barcelona, Spain (2019); Inherited Memory (online exhibition), TARQ, Mumbai, India (2020); The Dawn of Aquarius (online exhibition), Lakeeren, Mumbai, India (2021); The 2021 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Finalists Exhibition, 9 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong SAR (2021); Shifting Selves: Between Meaning, Mythology and Mirage (presented by Sarmaya Arts Foundation), TARQ, Mumbai, India (2021); Mentors, CFHILL, Stockholm (2021); Uprising, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Goerne, Germany (2022); Echoes of the Land (presented by Sarmaya Arts Foundation), Ojas Art, New Delhi (2022); Bonna, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka (2023); The Bunker Artspace 23/24 Season, The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A. (2023); Phantasm, Srishti Art, Hyderabad, India (2024); Ecospheres, Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa (2024); Overlaps, TARQ, Mumbai, India (2024); The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (2024); High Seas, Open Roads, Sarmaya Arts Foundation, Mumbai, India (2025) and La Mariposa (Butterfly Woman), Soho Revue, London (2025).

The list grows even longer when one adds her celebrated solo exhibitions: Collection of Dreams, Convento São Francisco De Mertola, Mertola, Portugal (2008); Worlds Within Words, Fabrica do Braço de Prata, Lisbon (2009); Origin of Species, Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai, India (2011); Mythography, Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai, India (2013); Encyclopedia Of The Strange, Tiny Griffon Gallery, Nuremberg, Germany (2014); Luna Tabulatorum, Stephen Romano Gallery, New York, U.S.A. (2015); Intersections, Galeria Combustion Espontanea, Madrid (2016); Ancestral Home, Galeria Bien Cuadrado, Barcelona, Spain (2017); Where The Water Takes Us, TARQ, Mumbai, India (2017); Mirror of the Mind, Galerie LJ, Paris (2019); Birth Of A New World, TARQ, Mumbai, India (2021); Festival of the Phoenix Sun, Galerie LJ, Paris (2022); Terraformation, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2023) and Pillars of Fruit and Bone, TARQ, Mumbai, India (2025).