Advisory Board

Born in 1970 in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, Jagannath Panda completed a BFA from the B.K. College of Arts & Crafts, Bhubaneshwar, in 1991, and an MFA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, in 1994. He also completed an MFA in sculpture from the Royal College of Arts London in 2002. Panda has participated in significant exhibitions around the world, including Visions from India hosted by the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, Ohio (2020–21); the Jeju World Natural Heritage Center, Korea (2019); Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi (2019); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2018); Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2017); the Modern Art Museum, Shanghai (2016); Halcyon Gallery, London (2015); the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2013); Frey Norris Contemporary and Modern Gallery, San Francisco (2012); MSU Gallery, Baroda (2012); Nature Morte, Berlin (2011); Alexia Goethe Gallery, London (2009); and Gallery Chemould, Mumbai (2009), among others. Panda was commissioned by the Jio World Convention Centre in 2022 and 2023 he had solo exhibition ‘Echoes of Unfathomed Worlds’ at Vadehra Art Gallery New Delhi.  His works are also included in the collections of GVK Mumbai International Airport; Mori Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Hindustan Times, New Delhi; and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. He was a visiting researcher at Fukuoka University of Education, Fukuoka, Japan, in 1997 as well as a recipient of the Lalit Kala Akademi Research Fellowship, Orissa State Lalit Kala Akademi Scholarship, and Junior Research Fellowship, Government of India. He has received several awards such as the Centre Prize, C.I.I.C London; All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award, New Delhi; Alice Boner Memorial Award; and the All India Drawing Award from Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi and Orissa State Lalit Kala Akademi. He has participated in the Khoj International Residency, Delhi, and International City des’Art, Paris.  The artist lives and works in New Delhi, India.  In 2011, Panda launched Utsha Foundation for Contemporary Art in Bhubaneswar, Odisha  to engage and nurture Indian culture.

Siddhartha Mohanty, a computer engineer is professionally involved in managing his diversified family businesses in the state of Odisha. Siddhartha also has been directly or tangibly associated in presenting Odisha’s natural beauty, architectural heritage, art forms etc through his company’s foundation arm and also his own nature conservation NGO. He passionately believes in originality and bringing in creativity into different representations of the beauty of Odisha. For more than 10 years he has been conceptualising and designing the MGM Calendar, an annual showcase of Odisha’s beauty. He trusts that it is indeed a piece of Odisha that reaches the desks of friends, associates and Odisha-philes all over the globe.

Sandeep Hota is the co-founder and managing director of Bhubaneswar Experimental Art and Design Studio (BEADS). A management professional with a deep interest in fostering the local arts and culture, he was instrumental in developing Bhubaneswar’s largest public art festival- Bhubaneswar Art Trail 2018 . He has authored a discussion paper on the role of public art in the city called ‘Art in the Smart City’ and organised the first workshop on the strategic use of art and culture in the city’s development with Bhubaneswar Development Authority in November 2017. He also collaborated with Seoul based artist InYoung Yeo on her project ‘Three way dialogue’ for the Seoul International Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017 and delivered a talk on Bhubaneswar’s urban challenges and an artistic response to it at Goethe Institute titled ‘Rituals to Relevance’. He also participated in the ‘Itinéraire Culture’ programme by the French Ministry of Culture in Paris in 2019 to deliver a lecture on ‘Art and Culture in Public Spaces’. As a management professional in his past life, he has worked in many countries with diverse clients including BP, Transport for London, Dentsu-Aegis and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation.

Premjish Achari is a Curator, Writer, and Film Maker. His curations include the exhibitions 'Inscapes: In Search of a Place' (Bikaner House, New Delhi, 2023), 'Things are vanishing before us'  (Bikaner House, New Delhi, 2023), Student's Biennale for Kochi Biennale Edition (2022-2023), 'All Canaries Bear Watching,' part of the Indo-UK collaboration GRID Heritage Project, SAA/JNU, Delhi (2022); 'A Time for Farewells' (Haverford College, Pennsylvania, and Prameya Art Foundation, New Delhi, 2019). Premjish was the editorial supervisor of Lokame Tharavadu ('The World Is One Family,' 2021), a major contemporary art survey exhibition organized by the Kochi Biennale Foundation. He was the recipient of the Pro Helvetia Art Writers' Award 2021, followed by a residency at Atelier Mondial, Basel, and published 'Lure of Collaboration: Dissecting Consensus' for Take on Art; Prameya Art Foundation's Art Scribes Award, including a residency at Château de La Napoule, France.  He is currently editing the first issue of the inaugural English Art Magazine for Kerala Laithakala Akademi. He has conceptualized and initiated the Kaee Kolkata City Lab. He directed the film on the artist Ravinder Reddy titled 'The Other Faces' in 2022.