Cover Archive
Usawa Cover Art
We are deeply grateful to the artists, photographers, and illustrators who have entrusted us with their work — each cover a collaboration, and a gift to our readers.
- Issue 14 Witness Sayeeda Khanam January 2026
- Issue 13 Memories of the Future Poonam Jain June 2025
- Issue 12 Gender & its Discontents Bakula Nayak December 2024
- Issue 11 Appetite Giulia Andreani June 2024
- Issue 10 The Body Bharti Kher December 2023
- Issue 9 Violence Akshay Mahajan June 2023
- Issue 8 Kindness Taymaz Valley December 2022
- Issue 7 Environment Amit Pandya June 2022
- Issue 6 Freedom Kamla Bhasin December 2021
- Issue 5 Human Rights Hakan Nural June 2021
- Issue 4 Lockdown Lina Krishnan December 2020
- Issue 3 Voice Devanchi Cholera December 2022
- Issue 2 Resist Poornima Kumar March 2019
- Issue 1 The Beginning Sumana Roy July 2018
Sayeeda Khanam was the first female professional photographer of Bangladesh.
A mirror acrylic sheet was suspended on a nala that may once have been a stream — now the identity of the locality near Aarey colony in Bombay. The reflection of the sky makes the mirror look like a clear water plot. When a bird flew over, it seemed as if a fish swam.
Documentation of the work was later displayed in galleries. At 1×1 Art Gallery, Dubai, a video of the installation was projected onto a table in a darkened room — a common space where people could sit and converse. During the opening, people chatted, rested their wine glasses and bags on the table. The wine glass was at once resting on the nala flowing underneath, and on the sky passing by.
Poonam Jain (b. 1989) works with drawing and installation to highlight structures within the fields of pedagogy, economy, and architecture.
She was a member of the artists’ union Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, from 2011 to 2016. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at Sapar Contemporary, New York (2017); New Gallery, Paris (2016); INSERT 2014, New Delhi; Gdanska Galeria Miejska 2, Poland (2014); and Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2013). She has had solo exhibitions at Art Dubai with 1×1 Art Gallery (2018), Clark House Initiative, Mumbai (2014), and 1×1 Art Gallery, Dubai (2014).
This artwork belongs to a series exploring themes of individuality, societal expectations, and the intersection of the natural and constructed world. The background, a vintage ledger, serves as a record of transactions — a nod to the commodification of value, including a woman’s worth in patriarchal structures. The bold coral surrounding the figure embodies protection and fertility, juxtaposing the figure’s modern, self-assured stance. The snail shell at her feet grounds her in cycles of growth and introspection, while the fish above her reinforces the transformative journey. Together, these elements create a layered narrative, questioning how identity is shaped within the constraints of tradition and expectation.
Bakula Nayak is an artist based between Bangalore and Pittsburgh, working at the intersection of motherhood, reproductive justice, and equality.
Bakula weaves together her personal histories with those of others and her work engages with themes of motherhood, reproductive justice, and equality, offering a nuanced commentary on the female experience. She explores themes of synergy between the individual and the collective, processes of art- and meaning-making, the experiences of women as well as contemporary cultural and psycho-social situations.
Recently living in Pittsburgh, she has exhibited her work extensively in India, with additional shows in Germany, Canada, and Singapore.
“Believe you can & you are halfway there”
@bakulanayak on Instagram →
Nudeltisch (Spaghetti painting) depicts four pinups at a table, swallowing — or regurgitating — spaghetti that resemble dripping paint strokes. The work references a post-perestroika painting by East-German artist Sighard Gille, and more broadly interrogates clichés about women and Italians reproduced across both popular and high art.
Giulia Andreani is a French-Italian painter whose work engages with art history, feminism, and the politics of representation.
Bharti Kher (b. 1969) was born in London and is one of the most celebrated contemporary artists working between India and the West.
Recent solo exhibitions include A consummate Joy, Irish Museum of Modern Art (2020); Chimeras, Centre Pasqu’Art, Biel (2018); and Dark Matter, Museum Frieder Burda, Berlin (2017). In 2022, Ancestor, an 18-foot-tall bronze sculpture commissioned by Public Art Fund, was unveiled in New York.
Her works are held in the collections of the Tate and British Museum, UK; the National Museum of Canada; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; the Walker Art Center; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, among others.
Dedicated to the ongoing violent unrest in Manipur.
Akshay Mahajan is a documentary photographer who explores the personal histories of people around him.
Taymaz Valley is an artist and photographer based in Ottawa, Canada, originally from London.
Collarwali was one of the most famous tigers in India, who had a pivotal role in changing the fortunes of Pench Tiger Reserve. So named because of the radio collar she wore, she gave birth to 29 cubs in eight litters over her lifetime — a prolific legacy. She became one of India’s best-known tigers after starring in the BBC Wildlife documentary Spy in the Jungle, which tracked the lives of four tiger cubs over two years.
Amit Pandya is a wildlife photographer.
Dedicated to Kamla Bhasin (24 April 1946 – 25 September 2021) — feminist activist, author, and social scientist who spent her life fighting for gender equality across South Asia. The cover shows her at Dhaka Lit Fest 2017, the words Hum Kya Chaaahte Azaadi — What do we want? Freedom — beside her.
Kamla Bhasin was one of South Asia’s most celebrated feminist activists, authors, and development practitioners.
Hakan Nural is a documentary photographer and designer.
A photograph taken in a village library in Rajasthan in 2015 — now quite prophetic.
Lina Krishnan is an abstract artist and writer based in India.
Sumana Roy is an Indian writer, poet, and nature lover based in Siliguri, West Bengal.