Shivanjani Lal
Shivanjani Lal is a Fijian-Australian artist and curator working on Gadigal and Wangal Country.
Shivanjani Lal’s work draws on personal grief to address ancestral loss and the legacy of forced migration. Using storytelling, video, performance, and installation, she unearths forgotten and silenced histories of Indian labourers in Fiji, often focusing on women’s experiences across the Indian and Pacific oceans. Her practice is rooted in truth-telling and the creation of contemporary monuments, imagining new futures shaped by memory and accountability.
Lal’s recent solo exhibitions include Saans Lo (take breath) at Margaret Whitlam Galleries in Western Sydney, (2025), Mere Porvaj (I am remembering) at Linden New Art, 2024, and Pani begets Pani at MAMA (2022). She has presented work internationally in group exhibitions such as Sharjah Biennial at UAE (2025), To Forever Ebb and Flow at MADA Gallery, (2024), and The National 4: New Australian Art at Campbelltown Arts Centre (2023). Her performances have been presented at Carriageworks, the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). Lal will premiere new work in the upcoming Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa and a brand new solo at Platform Arts Geelong, opening in 2026.
Lal was awarded the Create NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship in 2019, the Georges Mora Fellowship in 2020, the QAGOMA Vida Lahey Scholarship in 2023, and the Juncture Art Prize in 2023. She has undertaken residencies across Australia, India, and France, including the AGNSW studio at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris in 2024.
Lal holds a Masters in Artists’ Film and Moving Image from Goldsmiths, University of London (2021), and her work is held in public collections including Artbank and Caboolture Regional Art Gallery.
In this video, Lal shares how she’s reshaped her practice to allow for slower, more sustainable production, reflects on caring for aging parents, and explains how NAVA’s Code of Practice has helped her advocate for fair pay, for herself and others, as an artist and arts worker.
Video production by Atypical 2025.
Image: Shivanjani lal, photo by Rob Hookey for City of Sydney, 2023.
ID: A photo of Shivanjani Lal, she is leaning with one hand on her hip and the other resting on a dining table. She wears a blue checkered dress and is smiling at the camera. Spread across the table in front of her is an artwork printed on fabric featuring a dark image overlaid with a bold red shape. Behind her is a kitchen and a wooden-framed mirror.
About NAVA
The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) is a Membership organisation that brings together the many voices of the contemporary arts sector to improve fundamental conditions of work and practice. We do this through advocacy, education and the Code of Practice.
