VIRAJ KHANNA (b. 1995, Kolkata, West Bengal, India) is a visual artist from India who primarily works with the medium of textile. He studied Business Administration at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 2018. Khanna's works have been exhibited in solo shows at the LOFT, Gallery Art Exposure, Kolkata (2021); Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai (2022) ; the India Art Fair (2023) and recently at the National Gallery of Modern Art Mumbai (2023). He is currently pursuing his MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Viraj Khanna's unique embroidery-on-cotton characters bring life to
India's
encounter with globalized aspiration. Referencing consumer culture
alongside the wider contemporary art canon, Viraj's figures are hybrids
of desires
and feelings, composite beings that are a blur of sensations, wants,
and cultural referents. His distinct, imaginative figurative style
employs Indian techniques of embroidery, finding a youthful voice to
speak to a moment of global encounter. His creative use of traditional
embroidery techniques like zardozi and ari bring the aesthetics of
India's global consumer culture--defined by fashion and design--into a
painterly mode, combining languages of realism and abstraction to speak
to the emerging modes of being in South Asia.

Produced in
collaboration with West Bengal based artisans: Sekh Idrish, Rasul
Laskar, Sajahan Laskar, Jamal Mondal, Rafik Mistri, Anishuddin Mondal,
Bharat Sardar, Saidul Sekh, Pronab Sardar, Manajat Mondal, Nurul Haque
Molla, Amadulla Laskar, Afsar Ali, Jaki Moua, Alauddin Gayan, Haydar Ali
Molla, S.K. Sirajul, Julfikar Laskar, Barjahan Sekh, Mohaffar Laskar,
Ashik Ali, Abdul Rahman Fakir, Jahangir Laskar, Mostakin Laskar, Najrul
Sardar, Jahangir Sardar, S.K. Monirul, Md. Ajij Mallick, Md. Israil, Md.
Kalimuddin, Abdul Shabbir, Asfar S.K.