Born in 1957 in Bhadravati, India, Sheela Gowda is an artist who removes everyday materials with symbolic meaning from their surroundings and transforms them into installations that explore questions of society, politics, gender and labor conditions. Gowda has participated in the biennials of Lyon (2007), Venice (2009), Kochi (2012), Gwangju (2014) and São Paulo (2014), as well as documenta 12 (2007). In 2019 she received the Maria Lassnig Prize.