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Portia Roy

@royportia

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Feminist artist
Engraved plywood | Mixed media canvas | Drawings
Exhibitions, collections & collaborations: DM
Workshops @voiceinvisuals
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by @royportia

How much can a body say without a face?

Shared Silence is an ongoing series in which I explore how bodies carry traces of what they have lived through. Sometimes that history appears in a posture, in guardedness, or in the space a body seems able to occupy.

Human bodies and animals appear separately and together in these works. Their lives and histories are different. I am interested in their vulnerability, and in what we might recognise in another life without words.

Charcoal and soft pastel keep me close to the surface of the paper, to touch and to the traces it leaves. Alongside these drawings, the series also develops through mixed-media paintings.

This is an introduction to Shared Silence. I will be sharing individual works and the decisions behind them here.

For curatorial, exhibition and collection enquiries, please get in touch. Portfolio and artwork details available on request.

#portiaroy #fıgurativeart #charcoaldrawing #contemporaryindianart #feministart by @royportia

by @royportia

Somewhere Else
Charcoal and soft pastel on paper
2026

In the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira is accompanied by a dog on his final journey—a companion who guides him towards the other side.

I return to this image not as belief, but as a small, persistent hope.

May those who have known cruelty find one another.

Woman and animal, each carrying what the world has placed upon them. May there be between them a wordless recognition—the gentleness of keeping pace, of asking for no explanation, of not having to make the passage alone.

Perhaps companionship is its own kind of passage away from a world that has refused to be kind.

#figurativeart #IndianContemporaryart #portiaroy #womeninart #feministartist by @royportia

Kaali
Charcoal and dry pastel on paper
56"/70"
2026

In our housing society,
feeding a stray dog becomes a debate.
Petting Kaali becomes a complaint.
Kindness is photographed, forwarded, judged.
Empathy, it seems, needs permission.

#charcoaldrawing
#straydogs #pastelonpaper #drawing #portiaroy by @royportia

Becoming
Charcoal and soft pastel on paper
2.5'x3.33'
2026

This work comes from a feeling I have been unable to separate from myself—the sense that the world around and within is gradually and continuously decaying.

What happens outside slowly seeps within me; affects me directly. I experience this like an internal erosion. Very similar to the decaying of my body that has been through child birth, breast feeding, body shaming, molestation and sickness.

The body here is personal as well as political.

It is a witness to and a participant in the conditions of the world.

#feministart
#feministartist #fıgurativeart #pastelonpaper #portiaroy by @royportia

Fourteen years outside Bengal. Home sounded like Bangla.

Among the familiar voices at @galerie88_kolkata Resilience, Reverie and Return began to feel like a homecoming. That June in Kolkata, I was with old friends from Kala Bhavana, teachers and family—people who had known me long before these works existed.

There was such ease in speaking my language, in spending time with people who knew other parts of my life. My family was seeing my work in an exhibition for the first time. The younger ones joined in too, becoming part of a memory we could carry forward.

Living away has made me feel how much of home lives in language. In its humour and affection. In the ease of being understood, and the familiar ways we recognise one another.

We build lives in other cities. We grow into those lives. And sometimes, coming home lets us spend a little time with parts of ourselves we haven’t felt close to in a while.

Thank you, @galerie88 for welcoming my work and making room for these encounters. And to everyone who came and spent time with me: you made this a homecoming.

What makes Kolkata feel like home to you?

#kolkatadiaries #artexhibitions #bangla #homecoming #portiaroy by @royportia

Portia Roy (@royportia), is a visual artist currently based in New Delhi, India, whose work goes beyond the canvas, serving as both a mirror and a critique of society. With a foundation deeply rooted in her upbringing within a politically conscious household, Portia channels her early exposure to conversations about equality and justice into a compelling, and fresh body of art. Her journey, from the rigorous training at Kala Bhavana Santiniketan to becoming a feminist art activist, exemplifies a seamless integration of personal history, socio-political commentary, and visual storytelling.

A Bold, Honest Medium
Portia’s mastery of woodcut engraving is central to her artistic language. This choice of medium—bold, tactile, and historically associated with social critique—mirrors her artistic ethos. Her works often combine vivid Indian motifs with raw narratives of despair, resilience, and resistance. The intricate yet powerful lines of her engravings speak volumes, as if each stroke carries the weight of a story untold.

Follow LINK IN BIO to read more about Portia and her practise.

Artworks in order of appearance—
Image 2- Hand Tells a Thousand Stories,
Image 3- Love at the time of revolution,
Image 4- Comrades in Arms,
Image 5- The foot belongs to no one.

#thecuratormag #indieartist #artistsoninstagram

[visual art, art, delhi, india, contemporary art] by @royportia

Resilience Reverie and Return @galerie88_kolkata .

The exhibition is on till the 18th of July. Drop by at Galerie 88 to see these works physically. 🙂 by @royportia

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

Portia Roy’s daily practice is one that draws strongly from this philosophy. Apart from being inspired by Banksy, her approach towards art has gained critical depth through her childhood. With a father who was an active member in the CPI(M), and with everyday discussions about the need for an equal society, ideals of equal rights and social justice became essential to her worldview, and consequently, her art.

Her understanding of art and her medium became significantly more profound in her time at Kala Bhavana Santiniketan, where she completed both her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Printmaking. Kala Bhavana Santiniketan also provided her with the space to become acquainted with woodcuts, a bold medium that matched her artistic vision.

Building off her nurtured ideals, and her commitment towards art and activism, Portia’s works are deeply imbued with the emotions of angst and sorrow that stories of socio-political, gendered oppression around the world inspire in her. Her practice utilises her art as a platform to be able to narrate these stories. In doing so, she aims to awaken a sense of responsibility and compassion for those marginalised—care, for the uncared—through her work. Portia’s creations are largely reactionary, imbued with a feeling of desperation. They are characteristically driven by disturbing images and incidents that demand her attention, compelling her to bring them to life in her work in a call out to the viewer to look and to really listen.

DM @themethod.art or visit the link in our bio for more details. by @royportia

"Moon - Eaters from the land of the Proletariats"
Mixed Media on ply wood cut out
The creation of this image was
inspired by the poetic work of
Sukanta Bhattacharya,
specifically his piece "Hey
Mohajeevan" which employs a
hung realistic comparison of
the full moon and roti.
Additionally, Piyush Mishra's
composition "ik bagal me
chaand hogi ik bagal me
rotiya" served as a subliminal
influence throughout the
creative process.
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#woodcut #engraving #artofprotest #artofresistance #artforchange #artactivist #artactivism #artbasel #artforsocialchange #artforequality #feministart #feminismindia #feministartist #artbywomen #womeninart #womensart #womanartist #womensupportingwomen #arte #artgirlrising #artcurator #allshemakes #repainthistory #pussyriot #contemporaryartist #contemporaryart #portiaroy #artgallery by @royportia

Home Is Where I Prefer To Die.

Mixed media on plywood cutout.

6'/3'
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#migrantworkers
#womensart
#womenartists
#womanartist
#feministart
#feministartist
#artactivist
#artofprotest
#artofresistance
#artforchange
#migration
#portiaroy
#woodcuts
#engraving
#engendereddelhi
#indianartist
#artistmotherpodcast
#artgirlrising
#arte
#artforactivism
#artforall
#artbywomen
#guerrillagirls
#allshemakes
#politicalart
#politicalartist
#artofsolidarity by @royportia