Dolla Shikder (b. 2001, Magura, Bangladesh) obtained a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Painting) from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 2022, and a Master of Visual Arts (Painting) from the same institution in 2024. 

Working primarily through painting, her practice explores the complexity of identity and inner conflict shaped by an orthodox upbringing and prolonged distance from home. These experiences prompt reflection on themes such as origin, desire, anxiety, appearance, acceptance, and the male gaze. Engaging the body as both a site of pain and memory, Dolla’s visual language employs blurred effects, transparencies, and textured surfaces through materials like rice paper, butter paper, natural pigments, clay, gold leaf, and textiles. These formal strategies evoke the layered negotiations of identity that women continuously perform. In earlier series such as Playing Woman, she reimagines popular and historical depictions of femininity through layered fabrics and printed imagery. In Does Our Body Know We Don’t Live in Caves Anymore, she links migration with bodily transformation, reflecting on the animalistic dimensions of embodiment and the ontological fear of extinction. Her most recent work, Myths of Belonging, created in collaboration with her mother, reworks traditional Bengali embroidery forms such as katha and assan, crafting intimate portrayals of matrilineal memory and regional identity. 

Dolla has participated in group exhibitions including Abhishek City Project (Ahmedabad, 2023), WHICH SKY DO BIRDS FLY at Latitude 28 Gallery (New Delhi, 2023), FIRST TAKE by Abir India at Bikaner House (New Delhi, 2022), Pristine at Kamalnayan Bajaj Art Gallery (Mumbai, 2022), and the Gender Project online exhibition (Berlin, 2022).