Ita (Sunandita) Mehrotra is a visual artist, researcher and educator based out of New Delhi. Ita creates graphic narratives, non-fiction comics, illustrated text, and animation, often stemming from her ongoing engagements within people’s movements, and with a focus on citizenship, feminist leadership and memory keeping. Her work has been published and exhibited by thewire.in , Westland Books, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Tarq Mumbai, Fummetto Festival Luzern, popula.org, Zubaan Books, Goethe Institute, Yoda Press, AdAstra Comix, among others.
Ita has led community based arts programmes with children, young people and women for over a decade, and has run long-term programmes with The Community Libraries Project (Khirkee Village, New Delhi), Aagaaz Theater Trust (Nizzamudin Basti), Loka School (Bihar), among others. She led and directed the non-profit organisation Artreach India between 2017-2024. Ita works with community practices of visual storytelling, using materials and experiences from around the site, sensorial map-making, self-publishing and community exhibition making as bringing entire neighbourhoods and villages together for dialogue through her artistic practices.
Ita studied at Mirambika Free Progress school, a pioneering experimental learning space that greatly encouraged holistic development, learning through the arts and self learning. She has a Bachelors Degree in Philosophy (Hons.) from St.Stephens’ College, Delhi University (2010), from where she was awarded an exchange year at SciencesPo Paris (2011). At SciencesPo, Ita earned a Diploma in French Art History and Culture Studies. She returned to India to pursue a Masters at the School of Culture, Ambedkar University Delhi (2014). Ita’s MPhil from Arts and Aesthetics School, Jawaharlal Nehru University (2017) focuses on feminist graphic narratives in contemporary India.
Fellowships and Grant Awards
- Arts for Good Fellowship (Singapore International Foundation, Singapore, 2021-22) bringing together creative social change practitioners from across Asia Pacific
- Fumetto Arts Festival– Pro Helvetia (Swiss Arts Council) International Apprenticeship Grant 2018, Switzerland
- Gender-Bender Fellowship & Exhibition– (Goethe Institute Bangalore + Sandbox Collective), 2018
- Young Connectors of the Future Fellowship – Swedish Institute, Stockholm (Creative Social change leadership programme), 2015-16, Sweden
- Drawing Attention: Residency for Women Comic Artists – Zubaan Books + Goethe Institute Delhi, Sanskriti Kendra, 2014
- Negotiating Routes IV: Ecologies of the Byways – Artist grant fromKHOJ International Artists Association to record histories of Chipko movement, Garhwal , 2013
Select Publications
- Uprooted, A Graphic Account of the Struggle for Forest Rights (Westland Books, 2025)
- Shaheen Bagh: A graphic Recollection, Yoda Press (Yoda Press, 2021)
- Drawing Home, self published (grant support: Gender Bender, Goethe Institute Bangalore)
- Artful Challenging: An Interview with Orijit Sen, criticalcollective.com, 2019 (interview article)
- Eyes That Follow (and others), popula.com, 2018-19 (short comics)
- Metromorphosis, First Hand 1: Graphic Non-fiction from India, Yoda Press, 2016 (as part of the anthology of comics)
- The Poet, Irom, Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fighting Back, Anthology of graphic stories , Zubaan and Goethe Institute Delhi, 2015
- A School with A view, Womens Feature Service, 2015 (article on create village school in Garhwal)
- Forest Song: Sudesha, A Chipko Story, Booklet, Khoj International Artists Association + Norwegian Embassy Delhi, 2014
- Behind the Exotica: Maha Kumbh 2013, Economic And Political Weekly, March, 2013 (an indepth study of the underbelly of the Maha Kumbh)
Select Exhibitions
- The Craft of Comics, Birla Academy, Kolkatta, 2025
- Please Touch Gently, Comics, Zines and Ephemera, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi, 2025
- World, But No Home, Tarq Mumbai, 2024
- Woman Is As Woman Does, Jehangir Nicholson Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2021
- All Canaries Bear Watching, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mumbai, 2022
- Evidence Room, KHOJ International Artists Association, Delhi, 2017, (Group Exhibition, Art & Ecology)
- Avaaz Do, SEHMAT Memorial Day Festival (Constitution Club, Delhi), 2018
- Fummeto Comix Festival 2019, Luzern (prints of Drawing Home)