PICA invites WA-based visual artists to apply for an international residency in 2026 in New Delhi, India with Khoj.
This year, Khoj invites applications from artists whose practice engages with mental health and trauma, critically examining how pain—physical, psychological or historical—shapes both the self and society. How is suffering unequally distributed across race, class, gender and geography? How do individuals and communities navigate, resist or reclaim agency in the face of war, colonial legacies and systemic inequalities?
The residency also welcomes explorations of myth-making, magic and rituals as alternative ways for understanding and processing pain. Ancestral practices, oral histories and spiritual traditions have long functioned as tools of healing and resistance. At the same time, digital cultures and technological systems significantly shape the self, influencing experiences of anxiety and memory.
Khoj is a not-for-profit contemporary arts organisation based in New Delhi, India that is committed to supporting emerging, experimental and transdisciplinary creative practices and pedagogies. Khoj will host a mid-career WA artist for six weeks, responding to the thematic of the residency and with a preferred interest in community-responsive modalities. PICA’s partnership with Khoj enables artists to develop their work in new cultural contexts, building global networks and sharing their projects with new audiences.
Applications are now closed.
Application Dates
Applications are now closed.
Eligibility
This opportunity is open to all mid-career Western Australia–based visual artists, aged 18+ years.
Support
The residency includes an artist fee, return airfare, accommodation, and a daily stipend. PICA staff will provide support around travel, accommodation, visa applications, insurance and planning.
Khoj will provide residents with introductions to local artists, curators and communities; assist with the development of a schedule of activities; and provide an opportunity for the resident to present work or research to the public via an open studio, presentation of work, or artist talk.
Selection Criteria
Artistic merit
Demonstrated quality of your existing work and public and peer response to your practice.
Suitability
The suitability of your practice and your proposal to the residency program, its location and conceptual focus.
Impact on your career
How the proposed residency will strengthen your practice and capacity as an arts professional, particularly in relation to international development and exchange.
City and Country
New Delhi, India
About Khoj
Khoj is a not-for-profit contemporary arts organisation based in New Delhi. Through international, on-site, off-site and often hyper-local programs and residencies, Khoj supports and incubates experimental and transdisciplinary creative practices that look at art and its various intersections with other disciplines such as gender, urbanisms, ecology and technology.
The residency at Khoj provides time and space for artists to engage, respond and present their work in a historical socio-economic context, encouraging inclusivity, participation and artistic intervention in small but palpable ways. The residency acts as a platform for dialogue, supporting the development of personal artistic practices while building a network of interdisciplinary artists.
Website
Residency Dates
Six weeks, August–September 2026 (exact dates TBC)
Residency Theme
Khoj invites applications from artists whose practice engages with mental health and trauma, critically examining how pain—physical, psychological or historical—shapes both the self and society. How is suffering unequally distributed across race, class, gender and geography? How do individuals and communities navigate, resist or reclaim agency in the face of war, colonial legacies and systemic inequalities?
The residency also welcomes explorations of myth-making, magic and rituals as alternative ways for understanding and processing pain. Ancestral practices, oral histories and spiritual traditions have long functioned as tools of healing and resistance. At the same time, digital cultures and technological systems significantly shape the self, influencing experiences of anxiety and memory.
Working in any medium, the artist is encouraged to expand the discourse on mental health, reimagining the self, its wounds and its remakings.
Type of Studio
Own studio along with the use of a space for film screenings and/or events.
Accommodation
Shared living space with 3 bedrooms, a kitchenette, a lounge and a courtyard surrounded on all sides by independent studio facilities available to residents.
Facilities
Wi-Fi, basic tools available to be shared with other residents, artist library, media lab with photography equipment, sound recording, mixing desks and video editing software.
Resources
Logistical support from staff, facilitated connections with local arts professionals, programming towards the residency, bringing in knowledge partners and interlocutors as required, promotion of open studio.
Opportunities to Present Work
Open studio event
Expectation of Artists
Artist talk/open studio event
Nearest International Airport
Indira Gandhi International Airport
Supported by Khoj and PICA’s Art Ambassadors.
