Ita Mehrotra is a visual artist, researcher and educator based out of New Delhi. She creates non-fiction comics, graphic narratives and illustrated text stemming most often from engagements within socio-political shifts around her, and in unravelling their particular histories. Her graphic books include Uprooted, A Graphic Account of the Struggle for Forest Rights (Westland Books, 2025) and Shaheen Bagh, A Graphic Recollection (Yoda Press, 2021). Her comics and illustrated stories have been published and exhibited widely over the past decade, with Zubaan Books, Goethe Institute Delhi and Bangalore, Adastra Comix, The Wire, Scroll, Fumetto Festival Luzern, Khoj Artists Association, among others.
Ita leads visual art programmes with rural schools and libraries across India. She has been visiting faculty at Ashoka University between 2021-2025 teaching courses in graphic non-fiction. Ita has received grant awards from Prohelvetia Swiss Arts Council, Goethe Institute Bangalore, Singapore International Foundation and the Swedish Institute, among others. She has an MPhil from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU and a Masters in Visual Arts from Ambedkar University Delhi.
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Sketching Voices, Shaping Memories | Ita Mehrotra in Conversation with Khushnoor Chugh | OCLF
On 22nd Nov 2025 01.00 PM TO 01:40 PM
This session with graphic novelist and educator Ita Mehrotra explored how visual storytelling can document truth, preserve memory, and inspire social change. In conversation with senior journalist Khushnoor Chugh, Ita shared how sketches, frames, and colours can often communicate what words struggle to express.
Drawing from her acclaimed works such as Shaheen Bagh and Uprooted, she spoke about creating narratives rooted in lived experience, community engagement, and careful observation. She explained how her process moves between on-the-spot sketching, working from photographs, and recreating scenes from memory, each offering its own authenticity.
The discussion touched on how visual narratives grow from empathy, trust, and time spent with people whose stories deserve to be heard. The audience engaged with questions on storytelling choices, illustrative techniques, and the emotional power of graphic reportage.
The session concluded with an appreciation of how art can shape public understanding and serve as a witness to social realities. Supported by Westland Books, the conversation celebrated the transformative potential of visual narratives.