Nilima Sheikh's painted scrolls make her New York solo debut

Nilima Sheikh's main series uses scrolls painted on both sides. It is called Each Night Put Kashmir in Your Dreams, and it dates from 2003 to 2014. Those scrolls are painted on loose canvas, not canvas stretched on a frame.

You can see the show at MoMA from 27 September 2026 until 13 June 2027. It is her first solo show in New York. Sheikh was born in 1945, and the show draws on work from the past two decades.

Three series, one story

The scrolls hang with Home, Land, a set of paintings on paper from 2023 to 2025. They cover the displacement of the nomadic Bakarwal communities of Jammu and Kashmir. Home, Land 3 also carries two text panels.

The third series, Shahid/Witness, is new. It has ten monumental scrolls that hang from above. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art commissioned them, and they debut in New York. They include Climate Change/Flood 2, Forest Fire and Migrants, each painted on both sides.

Where the works come from

The credit lines show a wide circle of owners. Home, Land 2 is credited to Sunita and Vijay Choraria, and Home, Land 3 to Udit Bhambri. We Must Bear is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago. Construction Site is credited to Chemould Prescott Road.

What the makers say

Sheikh says an artist's role is to bear witness to both the past and the present. Cara Manes, an associate curator at MoMA, says the paintings face histories of violence, displacement and erasure with care and invention. Roobina Karode, artistic director and chief curator of the Delhi museum, says Sheikh's work gives a deep South Asian view of contemporary art.

I admit a painting with two fronts has already confused my sense of direction.

The context

Two curators from each museum organised the show: Cara Manes and Elizabeth Wickham in New York, and Roobina Karode and Avijna Bhattacharya in New Delhi. The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art gave major support, and its Young Patrons Council gave funding. The museums announced the show on 22 July 2026. A Bloomberg Connects digital experience is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

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