Indian
Performance Artist
studio.aparnaashok@gmail.com
Education
2018 - BA Visual Arts, Stella Maris, Chennai
2021 - MA Visual Communication, Roya College of Art, London
Solo Exhibtions, Open Studios and Performances
2022 - Solo exhibtion, Unseen Realities, Auroville, Pondicherry
2024 - I See Vampires In My Garden, Performance, Casa R.A.R.O, Spain
2024 - Our Mothers Were Oceans, Performance, Casa R.A.R.O, Open Studio, Spain
2025 - Lemon Trees Die In Cold Rooms, Performance, JOYA AiR, Spain
Group Exhibitions
2022 - Athens Open Art Number 23
2024 - Performing Rome, MAXXI Museum, Rome
2024 - PostHuman - Body, Ecology and Technology Conclave, Utkal University of Culture, Orissa
2024 - Body Furia, TPK, Spain
2025 - Possible Futures 4th edition, Hyderabad Literary Festival, Sattva Knowledge City, Hyderabad
2025 - Arcane Portals - Future Ritual, London
Residencies
2022 - RARA Residencia, Spain
2024 - Casa R.A.R.O, Spain
2025 - JOYA AiR, Spain
2025 - Eutopia, Kavala, Greece
Workshops
2022 - Immortal Identities, RARA Residencia, Spain
2024 - Perfrorming Rome, Summer Lab, RUFA University
2024 - Performing the Memory, Marta Jovanovic, ECC Platform
2024 - Performance Art: From idea to execution, Marta Jovanovic, ECC Platform
2024 - Performance-based Filmmaking, Vest&Page, ECC Platform
2025 - Arcane Portals - Future Rituals, Vest&Page, London
Aparna is a performance artist based in Chennai, India. Her work responds to the societal pressures placed on women, particularly within South Asian contexts, exploring themes of autonomy, identity, and cultural expectation. She confronts the tension between personal agency and inherited narratives, often using repetition, symbolism, and discomfort as tools of resistance.
She works across performance, photography, and film, drawing from her cultural heritage and global experiences to reflect on how the body becomes a site of negotiation—between duty and desire, silence and expression.
In 2024, Aparna showcased her work at the MAXXI Museum in Rome as part of RUFA University’s Summer Lab – Performing Rome, followed by the Posthuman – Body, Ecology and Technology Festival in Odisha and Body Furia Festival in Barcelona. In 2025, she was part of a performance festival with the Possible Futures Collective at the Hyderabad Literary Festival and participated in Arcane Portals, an intensive co-creation with Vest&Page, presented as part of Future Ritual: CEREMONY.
Aparna holds a BA in Visual Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai, and an MA in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art, London. Her practice continues to evolve through residencies, workshops, and collaborative projects that examine the friction between tradition and agency, personal narrative and collective expectation.