From a hilltop in Mumbra, Khan Shamim Akhtar has made Gaza his subject

One rain-soaked July afternoon, I met the artist Khan Shamim Akhtar in Mumbra, a Muslim ghetto on Mumbai’s outskirts. Fresh from his first solo exhibition, The Cenacle on the Sajjada, held in the city at the end of 2024, Akhtar is among a small number of Indian artists who have made work about Gaza, and perhaps the only one to have sustained it consistently.

Sumesh Sharma, the director and curator of Strangers House, where the exhibition was held, told me that the artist had come to the attention of Hindutva student groups. Sharma cautioned that artists who take such risks at the cusp of their careers “must be protected by all means”.

The past couple of years have been busy for Akhtar, who holds a Master’s in Fine Arts from the city’s JJ School of Art. In 2024, he won the Artist Altaf Award and, three months later, the Takshila Fine Arts Scholarship.

Last year, he was selected as a curator for the Students’ Biennale at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Mario D’Souza, Director of Programmes at the Kochi Biennale Foundation, said he wanted students to see a recent graduate succeed through honest, deeply intentional work.

In November, Akhtar received the South Asia Speaks Prize, which recognised him for his exceptional creativity...

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