Murari Jha is a contemporary Indian visual, educator and performance artist whose practice spans painting, installation, and durational performance. Working across mediums and geographies, his work often engages questions of labour, migration, embodiment, and the politics of belonging. Jha approaches the body as both a site of resistance and memory, and his performances frequently foreground endurance, silence, repetition, and vulnerability as strategies for reclaiming agency and narrating lived experience.

Born in Bihar, Jha completed his BFA in Painting (2010) from Patna University and MFA in Painting (2012) from Dr B.R. Ambedkar University, Agra, graduating as a Gold Medallist in both courses. His artistic trajectory has since evolved into a multidisciplinary language shaped by the observation of social realities, personal displacement, and deep engagement with the idea of home.

Jha has presented his work widely through solo and group exhibitions, including Baggage from "The Longest March" at Nature Morte, New Delhi (2023) and participated in significant showcases such as Returning to Earth: A Kinder Search for Home at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi, 2023) and Dhaka Art Summit (2023); The Sculpture Park at Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur (2024); Out of Turn at Bikaner House, New Delhi (2024); and NEW INTERIORS: The Deceived Self at State Art Gallery, Hyderabad (2025).

Durational performance practice forms a central pillar of his work, with landmark performances such as A Magician from "The Longest March" (KNMA, 2023), Samay Pahaad Ho Gaya Hai (Kochi, 2022), Far from My Home: Machaan (Goethe-Institut, 2020), Good Sleep (Unidee/Inlaks, Italy, 2017), and Dhaan (Theertha International Artist Collective, Sri Lanka, 2017). He has been an artist-in-residence with Samdani Art Foundation (Bangladesh), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi), HH Art Spaces (Goa), Unidee/Inlaks (Italy), Theertha International Artist Collective (Sri Lanka), and 1Shanthiroad (Bangalore), among others. His projects have frequently been supported by collaborations that centre research-led, community-informed, and site-responsive artistic processes.

Jha currently lives and works in New Delhi.

Murari Jha

The Future of Nostalgia _42, 2025