Fursat - a series of textile workshops and South Asian art history lectures

A South Asian term encompassing leisure, reflection, and wisdom, Fursat is an unhurried state of being that fosters deeper connections to life and creativity.

The Fursat Lecture Series is an invitation to go deeper into the histories held in South Asian art, and into the making of textile crafts by hand. Across four sessions, guest lecturer Vinit Vyas (PhD scholar in Art History) guides us through portraiture, desire, materiality, and gender in South Asian painting - from Amrita Sher-Gil’s twentieth-century portraits back to the courts of Mughal, Rajasthani, and Pahari tradition.

The intent of this series is to bring scholarship to a public audience and to engage in critical thinking while making. Each lecture unfolds into making. Through drawing and Kalamkari, Nikita will lead you in translating the artist’s philosophy onto cloth - not copying a painting, but sitting with their hand, their lineage, and letting it find its way into fabric.

About Vinit Vyas:
Vinit Vyas is 2026 PS2 Summer Public Research Fellow at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His interdisciplinary research explores early modern and colonial visual and material culture of South Asia, with a focus on paintings and textiles. He is specifically interested in questions of erotica, gender ambiguity, sexuality, same-gender desire, and transgender narratives. With a BVA and MVA in Art History from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda, he has worked with institutions including National Institute of Design (NID), MSU Baroda, Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, and the Williams College Museum of Art.

DATES:
September 11: “Europe belongs to Picasso. India belongs only to me”: Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) & the Art of Portraiture.
October 9: “Are you sure you’re not intoxicated?”: Thinking about Female-Female Desire and Friendships in early modern South Asian paintings.
November 6: “She is Everything”: Materiality and the Body in the Basholi Tantric Devi series.
December 4: Painting the Uncanny?: Hair, Hirsute Body, and Gender Ambiguity in Rajasthani paintings.

TIME: 6.30pm-9pm
LOCATION: Bedstuy, Brooklyn

They will also offer one full scholarship to ensure that cost is not a barrier.