Jaipur Centre for Art (JCA) will mark its first year of operations with two major exhibitions opening on November 9, 2025: a solo show by Bangladeshi artist Ayesha Sultana and the sixth edition of The Sculpture Park at Jaigarh Fort.
Ayesha Sultana: Fragility and Resilience
The exhibition, titled “Fragility and Resilience,” runs from November 9, 2025, through January 4, 2026, at JCA’s gallery space in the City Palace. The show has been adapted from its original presentation at Dubai’s Ishara Art Foundation in 2024, where it marked Sultana’s first comprehensive solo exhibition in the Gulf region. The Jaipur presentation is a collaboration with Ishara Art Foundation and supported by Experimenter gallery.
The exhibition explores the relationship between vulnerability and strength, examining how fragility can function as a form of resilience against contemporary social, ecological, and personal challenges.
Sultana’s multi-disciplinary practice is represented through several bodies of work:
- Glass sculptures: The artist’s first hand-blown glass works, exploring the material’s dual nature as both fragile and enduring
- Breath Count series: Marks inscribed on clay-coated paper that record time through breathing rhythms
- Threshold photographs: A layered exploration combining the artist’s images with photographs by her father, scratched and solarized to reflect themes of memory and erasure
- Miasms and Inhabiting Our Bodies: Watercolors on Japanese silk tissue evoking both ocean turbulence and skin’s delicateness
- Oil paintings and additional works on clay-coated paper
The exhibition was originally conceived by Sabih Ahmed, Projects Advisor at Ishara and former Director of the foundation.
The Sculpture Park at Jaigarh Fort
The sixth edition of The Sculpture Park opens November 9, 2025, at Jaigarh Fort, marking its second year at this location after relocating from its original site. Presented in partnership with Saath Saath Arts, the exhibition is considered one of India’s most significant platforms for contemporary sculpture, featuring work by both emerging and established artists.
JCA’s Inaugural Year
JCA was founded in 2024 by Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur and contemporary arts specialist Noelle Kadar. Operating within the City Palace complex, the institution aims to position Jaipur within global contemporary art discourse while drawing on the city’s historical legacy of artistic patronage.
The venue’s inaugural year included four major exhibitions:
- A New Way of Seeing (November 23, 2024 – March 16, 2025): Curated by Peter Nagy, featuring Tanya Goel, Manjunath Kamath, Anish Kapoor, Alicja Kwade, Sean Scully, Dayanita Singh, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and LN Tallur
- India in Dialogue: Tradition & Transformation (May 3 – June 8, 2025): A group exhibition presented with Whitewall magazine, featuring Asim Waqif, Biraaj Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, Rana Begum, Shilpa Gupta, Thukral & Tagra, and others
- Artists’ Cinema / Artist’s Cinema (June 20 – July 31, 2025): A six-week film program curated by Dr. Shwetal Ashvin Patel, screening over 150 films from South Asia and beyond
- Non-Residency (August 9 – October 5, 2025): A collaboration with Los Angeles gallerist Rajiv Menon exploring diasporic aesthetics
JCA is also developing an artist residency program to facilitate collaboration and cross-cultural exchange.
About the Artist
Ayesha Sultana was born in 1984 in Jashore, Bangladesh, and currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a BFA (2007) and postgraduate diploma in Art Education (2008) from Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, where she also taught.
Her exhibition history includes presentations at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2022), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (2020), Art Basel (2019), the Asia Pacific Triennial in Queensland (2018), Lahore Biennale (2018), Gwangju Biennale (2016), and Dhaka Art Summit (2014, 2023).
Sultana’s work is held in major institutional collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern in London, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi, Samdani Art Foundation in Dhaka, X Museum in Beijing, Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai, and Devi Art Foundation in New Delhi.
Both anniversary exhibitions are open to the public.
Cover image: Ayesha Sultana |Untitled, 2025 | Oil on canvas | 60 x 72 in | Courtesy the artist and Experimenter. Loaned from a private collection
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