A Northamptonshire-based artist has been selected to exhibit her work as part of the British Council’s Study UK Creative Connections 2026 exhibition in New Delhi.
Visual artist Amritha Jalaja Devi, originally from Kerala, India, has had her painting Shared Silence (2024) chosen for the international exhibition, which brings together creative work connected with UK education and cross-cultural exchange.
The British Council has also published an individual artist profile highlighting Amritha’s work and the experiences that have shaped her artistic practice.
Now based in Northamptonshire, Amritha trained in painting at the Raja Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts in Kerala before moving to the UK. She later completed an MA in Contemporary Arts Practice at De Montfort University.
Her figurative paintings explore themes including migration, memory, belonging, rest and human connection, with her own experience of moving between Kerala and the UK providing part of the inspiration for her work.
The selection of Shared Silence gives Amritha’s work an international platform while marking another step in an artistic journey that has developed across India and the UK.
Her wider practice has included collaborative public-art projects in Kerala as well as commissioned mural work in Leicester.
Amritha is now looking to build on the British Council recognition by developing further community art, workshops and public-art projects in Northamptonshire and elsewhere in the UK.
Speaking about her practice, Amritha said her work is informed by the experience of living between different places and cultures, with questions of identity, connection and belonging recurring throughout her paintings.
Her inclusion in the Creative Connections exhibition also highlights the international links being formed by artists who have studied and developed their careers in the UK.
For Amritha, Northamptonshire is now becoming the next chapter of that journey, as she looks to connect her artistic practice with communities closer to home while continuing to exhibit to an international audience.
