Archive · 3 Oct 2026
Nilima Sheikh’s MoMA Show Explores Home, Kashmir and Climate
Nilima Sheikh is an artist whose new exhibition is showing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
It includes paintings about Kashmir, a place she says feels like home to her.
Some works show the lives of nomadic Bakarwal communities.
Others explore conflict and people being forced from home.
Her newest series also looks at climate change and floods.
In one painting, a mythical bird watches over a nest as floodwaters sweep away homes and trees.
Sheikh uses ideas from traditional paintings and works with craftspeople and poets.
Her art brings together difficult problems and the possibility of hope.
Nilima Sheikh’s first solo exhibition in New York, “Fractured Skies,” is underway at the Museum of Modern Art.
The exhibition presents three series: “Each night put Kashmir in your dreams,” “Home, Land,” and the new “Shahid/Witness.”
Her work addresses Kashmir’s cultural legacy, displacement, conflict, and the lives of nomadic Bakarwal communities.
In “Shahid/Witness,” Sheikh also responds to climate change, including glacial warming and floods in the Himalayas.
She combines traditional visual forms, poetry, and collaboration with craftspeople in her paintings.
- Who
- Artist Nilima Sheikh.
- What
- Her first solo exhibition in New York, “Fractured Skies,” presents three series about Kashmir, home, displacement, conflict, and climate change.
- When
- The exhibition is underway; the articles do not give its dates.
- Where
- The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- Why
- Sheikh’s work examines the meaning of home amid threats including conflict, displacement, and climate change.
- Artist
- Nilima Sheikh, 80
- Exhibition
- “Fractured Skies,” her first solo show in New York
- Venue
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
- Series on view
- “Each night put Kashmir in your dreams” (2003–14), “Home, Land” (2023–25), and “Shahid/Witness” (2025–26)
- Climate focus
- “Shahid/Witness” addresses climate change, including glacial warming and flooding.
- Artistic methods
- Sheikh draws on traditional painting forms and collaborates with poets and craftspeople.
- Education
- She studied history at the University of Delhi and painting at MSU Baroda.