Puja Vaish

Biography

Puja Vaish is an artist and curator and currently serves as Director of the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, the modern and contemporary art wing of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai. Previously, she was Curator at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2013–2019), where she worked extensively with the museum's colonial-era collections.

Specializing in modern and contemporary Indian art, Vaish has curated numerous critically acclaimed exhibitions. Her practice foregrounds Indian post-independence art through untold histories and microhistories, using them as critical frameworks to rethink museum practice, art history, and contemporary discourse. She has written extensively on Indian art, offering new perspectives on historical and contemporary artistic practices.

Vaish holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in visual arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, where she was awarded the Gold Medal and the Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship. She qualified for the University Grants Commission's National Eligibility Test (NET) for Lectureship in 2006 and has since taught at several leading art institutions in India. She was a Lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (2008–2009), a Visiting Faculty member at the Delhi College of Art (2009–2010), and at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai (2010–2014).

Puja Vaish, Director at The Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai, India, has been awarded by the Getty Foundation (Los Angeles, USA).