6th KMB Artist Kulpreet Singh Wins The Hayward Gallery-KMB Award

KOCHI:
Contemporary Indian artist Kulpreet Singh, a participating artist of the 6th edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, has won the Hayward Gallery/Kochi-Muziris Biennale (HG-KMB) Award. Singh’s project Indelible Black Marks will open at Hayward Gallery HENI Project Space on June 16 and continue until August 2, co-presented by Kochi-Muziris Biennale and supported by TNQ Foundation.

The Hayward Gallery-KMB Award is an initiative that offers a South Asian artist participating in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26 an opportunity to present his/her first institutional solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.

Kulpreet Singh’s work, exhibited at the 6th Kochi–Muziris Biennale, emerges from a deep engagement with land, labour and the agricultural landscapes of Punjab. Its visual and sonic force speaks to the environmental and human consequences of extraction and depletion. We are delighted that the Hayward Gallery/Kochi–Muziris Biennale Award will support this important presentation of his work in London,” said Jitish Kallat, President, Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

The exhibition features a film installation examining the interconnection between climate change and the agrarian crisis. Drawing from his lived experience as a farmer, Singh, who is based in Patiala, stages the ritual of stubble burning, in which crop residue is set ablaze to prepare fields for a new cultivation cycle. Accompanied by an abstract five-panel painting created using fire and stubble ash, the work documents performers carrying large canvases across burning fields, reflecting on ecological degradation and the exploitation of land.

The presentation is curated by Rachel Thomas, Roden Chief Curator at Hayward Gallery, London, with Ananya Jain, Curatorial Assistant at Hayward Gallery. The exhibition is supported by RC Foundation, with additional support from TNQ Foundation, Chennai.

An elated Kulpreet Singh said, “Presenting my work in London, particularly at the Hayward Gallery, is deeply meaningful for me. These centres are key to a global discourse on art, and to show my work there also allows me to put forth issues that are not confined to one place but resonate across the world — about land, environment and farming.”

He added: “At the core of my work is a guiding philosophy from Sikhism that feels especially relevant today: Through remembering the Divine (Naam), may one remain in high spirits (Chardi Kala), and in your will, may there be well-being for all (Sarbat da Bhala).”

His notable exhibitions include Fossils of Force at Mumbai art gallery Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke (2025), All Stories Are About Us: A Climate Recipes Survey at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts (2025), Indelible Black Marks at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke (2024), and Contemplation at Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi (2019).