Karishma Swali on Redefining Craft and Collating the Swali Craft Prize

In a transformative moment for contemporary craft, the inaugural Swali Craft Prize was awarded to Natasha Preenja, also known as Princess Pea, at India Art Fair 2026. Founded by Karishma Swali and the Chanakya Foundation in partnership with India Art Fair, the prize recognizes practitioners whose work bridges traditional techniques with contemporary innovation.

Preenja’s winning work, The Lotus Headed (2026), was realised in collaboration with master artisans from the Chanakya School of Craft, blending centuries-old craft with radical contemporary thought. The sculpture draws from the archetype of Lajja Gauri, embodying fertility, endurance, and political resonance, while its construction involves hand-carved wooden fragments, embroidery, and a concealed steel structure, creating a monumental yet porous form.

Below, Karishma Swali reflects on the philosophy behind the Swali Craft Prize, craft as contemporary dissent, and the transformative potential of collective making in a conversation with Luxeook.

Luxebook: You have consistently challenged the hierarchy between artist and artisan. With the Swali Craft Prize, are you attempting to formalise that challenge within the contemporary art ecosystem?
Karishma Swali: For years, we have questioned the perceived distinction between the artist and the artisan. In many ways, the Swali Craft Prize is a natural extension of that ongoing inquiry. The Prize honours practitioners who work with inherited techniques while shaping new contemporary vocabularies. It recognises craft as a living language that carries history forward through experimentation and research. In doing so, it creates a framework in which the intelligence of the hand is afforded the same critical and cultural weight as conceptual thought. The Lotus Headed draws from the figure of Lajja Gauri, an archetype that is at once sacred, sensual and politically charged.

Luxebook: What felt urgent about returning to this iconography today?
Karishma Swali: Returning to Lajja Gauri felt urgent because she embodies a feminine power that is primordial, yet grounded in the realities of the body. Her squatting posture, historically tied to birth, reproductive cycles, and domestic ritual, also carries contemporary resonance, suggesting protest and reclamation. The project marks a meeting of two methodologies: Natasha Preenja’s sculptural investigation into maternal resilience and the Chanakya School’s interdisciplinary material practice grounded in collective authorship. To Preenja, the goddess is a visceral force that gathers and absorbs pain, carrying within her the silent endurance of mothers. This vision finds its technical breath through the school’s lineage of female-led collaboration, where the transmission of knowledge is treated as an evolving, thinking practice. The work is built through collective labour and inherited technique.

Luxebook: In your view, can craft operate as a site of contemporary dissent rather than nostalgia?
Karishma Swali: Yes, I believe it can. When craft is treated as inquiry, it becomes a site of resistance. It challenges hierarchies of authorship, reclaims the intelligence of the hand, and recognises tradition as a living, evolving practice. In The Lotus Headed, collective authorship and time-honoured techniques are not used to memorialise the past, but to engage with urgent ideas around the body, endurance and agency.

Luxebook: In a culture driven by speed and visibility, is slowness a radical proposition?
Karishma Swali: Slowness allows room for friction, for reflection, and for ideas to take material form. By investing in a sustained residency rather than a single moment of recognition, the Prize places value on duration, research and material immersion.

Luxebook: As this inaugural edition sets the tone, what conversations do you hope the Swali Craft Prize will provoke within India’s art landscape and in the global discourse on craft?
Karishma Swali: As this inaugural edition sets the tone, we hope the Swali Craft Prize opens a more expansive dialogue around the evolving language of craft. Over time, as the Prize grows in reach, we hope it provokes a fundamental shift in how making is understood and theorised across both Indian and global contemporary contexts. If it can help establish craft as a critical, living language within this discourse, that would be very meaningful.

The inaugural Swali Craft Prize not only celebrates exceptional craftsmanship but also reframes the conversation around the role of handcraft in contemporary art. Through the collaboration between Natasha Preenja and the master artisans of the Chanakya School of Craft, the Prize demonstrates that tradition and innovation can coexist, creating works that are at once culturally rooted and provocatively modern.

As Karishma Swali envisions, the Prize sets a new benchmark for collective making, material intelligence, and enduring artistic inquiry, positioning India at the forefront of global craft discourse.

You may also read: The Best Of New York Fashion Week 2026