5 min readNew DelhiAug 15, 2026 12:58 PM IST
First published on: Aug 15, 2026 at 12:58 PM IST
His professors at Mumbai’s JJ School of Art advised him to make larger works but Kumar Misal stuck to smaller pieces. “I just didn’t have the money to buy bigger canvases or paper,” says the 31-year-old artist from Kolhapur’s Kumbhoj village (Maharashtra). Over a decade later, he is among the promising new voices in Indian art, most recently, receiving the Emerging Artists Award 2026 by FICA and Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation. Addressing agrarian issues and Adivasi rights, Kumar’s work is at once aesthetic, evokes empathy and serves as a socio-political tool.
Kumar was born into a family of farmers. He had an artistic bent of mind even as a child, but pursuing a career in art never occurred to him. He imagined his future in a secure government job. Like many young boys in his village, he appeared for state police exams. He cleared the written but he “couldn’t pass the physical”. A distraught Kumar found reassurance in his former teacher who had once advised him to think about a career in art. “I had ignored it. It did not seem realistic,” he recalls. A failed attempt later, Kumar not just cracked the JJ School of Arts entrance exam, but also ranked second. That was, however, only a quarter of the battle won.
Kumar Misal working with sabai grass artisans during The Mayurbhanj Art Residency (Photo by Anik Dutta)
Without steady financial backing, Kumar remained a shadow occupant in the hostel. He spent the days in class and the nights painting commissioned murals across the city to make extra money. The hard work, though, only helped pay the bills. It wasn’t doing much in terms of a creative breakthrough, which came only at the end of his bachelors, during a paper-making workshop in Kerala. “They used banana leaves to make paper. That made me realise I could use the vegetation at our farm to make my own paper,” he says, sitting in the Belgadia palace, where he recently spent a month working with sabai grass artisans as the inaugural artist of The Mayurbhanj Art Residency.
This handmade paper, made with fibres of banana, corn and sugar extract, now gives his art its distinctive character. No two papers are the same. In Rawanth (2023), the fleshy, translucent paper is as much the art as the monochrome human form transforming into a banana plant printed on it. The paper’s frayed edges are symbolic of the tension between man and nature. The more structured paper in Varula (2024) mimics the ordered form of the anthill it features. “Coming from a farming family, I prefer the process first and then its result, as in the practice of agriculture: before the grain becomes food, it needs to be sown,” says Kumar, who did his Masters in Printmaking, also from JJ School of Art.
In Rawanth (2023), the fleshy, translucent paper is as much the art as the monochrome human form transforming into a banana plant printed on it (Photo by Art and Charlie)
Kumar’s subject of choice is topical but his practice stands out for its dynamism. Within three years, he has moved between semi-figurative, landscape, abstract and sculpture. With Kumar, you never know what’s coming next. That is his biggest strength. Also, that he never leaves any medium behind. Unlike most artists, who have phases with a medium, Kumar keeps engaging with them, just in new formats.
During his residency at the Hampi Art Lab in 2025, he used the same corn and banana fibres that form the base of his paper to create geometric layered sculptures resembling a microscopic view of the weave of a fabric. “I worked with Sakhi and Bunkai weaving units. Each thread comes together to make a fabric. It shows the significance of collective labour,” says Kumar, whose works go upwards of Rs 50,000. He is represented by the Mumbai-based Art and Charlie.
The cyclical nature of his agrarian heritage reflects in his art and way of life. In 2021, he opened a studio with a friend in Mumbai’s Ambernath. Kumar says, “It came together on its own. A senior rented it to us at a low cost, an ex-professor gave us a printmaking machine, and a friend, her books. It is for anyone who needs a space to work and doesn’t have the resources. I had so much help when I was struggling. It is now my turn.”
Kumar Misal at The Mayurbhanj Art Residency (Photo by Anik Dutta) 
Kumar Misal working with sabai grass artisans during The Mayurbhanj Art Residency (Photo by Anik Dutta)
In Rawanth (2023), the fleshy, translucent paper is as much the art as the monochrome human form transforming into a banana plant printed on it (Photo by Art and Charlie)
Share
