I am Puja Sarkar—a contemporary visual artist, curator, social activist and the founder of “SMS” – A Group of Artists, the socio-cultural organization based in Kolkata, India. My practice is deeply autobiographical and socially engaged, and it naturally extends into my work as the founder of ‘SMS - A Group of Artists’ -the socio-cultural organization/collective I established in 2009. ‘SMS’ was born out of necessity: not from privilege, but from the absence of one—no platform, no patron/god father, and no clear pathway when I was a young master’s student trying to imagine a future as an artist.
Artist collectives in India are far more than organizational forms; they are vital infrastructures that democratize access, sustain careers, and create cultural possibility where systems often fail. In a country as socially and regionally diverse as ours, many talented practitioners—especially those outside major metropolitan circuits—face invisibility, limited institutional access, and economic precarity. Collectives address these gaps by offering alternative exhibition platforms, peer mentorship, and the kind of collaborative networks that transform individual struggle into shared resilience.
‘SMS’ grew from this conviction. I founded it because I had lived the struggle: the rejections, the failures, the humiliations, the countless moments when galleries and gatekeepers dismissed work made from “ordinary” objects. Those early denials taught me an essential lesson—talent alone rarely builds a career; infrastructure, support, and access do. SMS became the platform I had needed: a space to incubate ideas, give visibility to emerging voices, and offer practical opportunities—exhibitions, workshops, residencies, and critical dialogue—that help artists continue when the system would otherwise make them stop. This journey was not easy. As a young artist and founder of an organization, I faced numerous humiliations, discouragements, criticisms and disappointments. Yet, I transformed every negative comment, rejection, and obstacle into motivation and inspiration. My vision was very clear from the beginning, the opportunities I never received in my formative years, I wanted to create and share with others
Over the sixteen years, SMS has evolved far beyond the framework of an artist collective; it has grown into a movement dedicated to inclusion, mentorship, and cultural development. We curated national and international exhibitions, host collaborative workshops and talk shows, participated in prominent art fairs, and maintain active partnerships with galleries, educators, social organizations, and media institutions.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, SMS played a significant role in supporting the artistic community by organizing the all-India fundraising exhibition “EMPATHY” in 2020-2021. Through the sale of artworks, we raised vital funds that were subsequently distributed to artists through dignified channels, including SMS-scholarship and SMS-grant programs over the following two years. Our mission extends meaningfully beyond the exhibition space. We are committed to the socio-cultural upliftment of underprivileged children, integrating art into community healing, education, and women’s empowerment. This dual focus—advancing artistic practice while fostering social impact—defines the identity of SMS and exemplifies how collectives and arts organizations can serve essential civic as well as creative functions.
The strength of a collective lies in its ability to replace isolation with dialogue. In practical terms this means mentorship programs, peer reviews, joint curatorial experiments, and shared resources that reduce the burden on an individual artist trying to navigate a market-driven ecosystem. In conceptual terms it means creating a culture in which experimentation is valued over instant marketability, and where young artists can learn to translate lived experience—memory, identity, and social critique—into sustained practice.
Collectives also amplify voices that would otherwise remain peripheral. By pooling networks and knowledge, they open doors to institutional partnerships, international exchange, and media visibility. SMS’s collaborations with galleries, art hubs, educators, and NGOs have repeatedly demonstrated how collective projects can catalyze opportunities that single practitioners rarely access alone. Equally important, these collaborations create audiences: communities that learn to see and value work grounded in social narrative and ecological responsibility.
For me, SMS is both a personal answer to a life of early exclusion and a public experiment in cultural democracy. What began as a survival strategy became a blueprint: offer mentorship to those who lack mentors, build exhibitions where there were no venues, integrate social practice into artistic pedagogy, and insist that the art world account for its inequities. The collective’s ongoing work proves that when artists come together with empathy and intention, they generate ecosystems of care, courage, and change.
In a rapidly changing global art landscape, artist collectives such as ‘SMS’ matter because they keep art human: inclusive, responsive, and rooted in community. They remind us that art is not merely aesthetic production but a form of social memory and cultural responsibility. ‘SMS’ was born from my personal struggle, but it lives to nurture hope—standing for every artist who dares to dream without a safety net and showing that when creativity and compassion unite, art becomes a practice of connection, resistance, and collective renewal.
Blog by,
Puja Sarkar
Contemporary Visual Artist, Curator & Social Activist
Founder/Director of “SMS” - Artistic & Socio-Cultural Organization
State Cultural Secretary of AIRA International Reporter’s Association