Oliva Saha
B.
1998
Hooghly
"
The story still unfolding
"
Oliva Saha lives and works in Kolkata. She completed her MVA in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda (2023), and her BFA from the Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship, Rabindra-Bharati University. Her practice unfolds as an intimate visual journal, drawing from personal memory, womanhood, and the slow transitions between childhood and adulthood. Through fragile materials and layered processes—staining, washing, erasing, and reworking—she reflects on escape, vulnerability, desire, anxiety, and self-reflection.
Working primarily with paper, watercolour, tea stains, natural pigments, indigo, and alta, Saha treats the surface as both skin and archive. Recurring forms—wilted flowers, insects, domestic objects, and childhood motifs—appear as emotional residues rather than literal symbols. The use of alta, in particular, recalls memories of women in her family and gestures toward traditions that are fading yet persist quietly. Her works function as autobiographical fragments: layered, partially concealed, and emotionally charged, offering tender reflections on growing up as a woman in a middle-class Indian household, where memory, fantasy, and lived experience remain deeply intertwined.
artworks
You can’t control me as your wish
2021
Watercolour, Tea Stain, Alta Dye
11 x 15 in
Welcome to my inner hall (Aladiner prodeep)
2023
Watercolour, Lamp Black, Natural Colour, Tea Stain on Single Mold Process Non-Toxic Paper
12 x 14 in
This is not a fairy tale, it’s truth
2024
Gouache Colour, Natural Colour, Charcoal, Pencil on Canson
6.5 x 30 in
I'm stronger then you
2021
Water colour, alta dye, tea stain on handmade paper.
21 x 30 in
He can see, but you can’t
2022
Watercolour, Alta Dye on Paper
22 x 30 in
They both are waiting
2023
Natural Colour, Gouache Colour, Charcoal, Khariya, Alta Dye on Processed Surface (Patta Cloth Scroll)
13 x 30 in
I want to go deeper, let me go
2021
Watercolour, Alta, Drawing, Ujala Dye on Paper
22 x 30 in
The ruin of the city where the drama has been staged again;
2024
Gouache Colour, Tea Stain, Natural Colour on Rice Paper Pasted on Processed Surface
55 x 11 in
They are all here
2021
Watercolour, Tea Wash on Handmade Paper
14.8 x 21.8 in
Untitled
2025
Natural Pigment, Gouache Colour, Drawing, Colour Pencil, Khariya on Canson Paper
4.13 x 5.83 in
See how many people are nesting inside you
2025
Natural Pigment, Gouache Colour, Khariya on Rice Paper Pasted on Cloth Scroll
23.5 x 37.5 in
Untitled (7 pieces)
2024
Natural Pigment, Clay, Gouache Colour, Flower Stain, Fresco on Acid-Free Mount Board and Paper
Variable paper size
Get me out of here
2021
Watercolour, Alta, Ujala Dye, Ink Wash on Watercolour Paper
22 x 30 in
A mysterious meeting
2025
Watercolour, Gouache Colour, Natural Pigment, Drawing, Golden Foil, Khariya on Canson (Acid-Free) Paper
22 x 30 in
I rush to touch his brutal love, again
2023
Natural Colour, Watercolour on Rice Paper Pasted on Fabiano
22 x 31 in
The horror of a dreamland, where I was wandering like a tiny insect
2023
Gouache Colour, Natural Pigment, Alta Dye, Flower Stain on Rice Paper Pasted on Patta Cloth Surface
42 x 96 in
What do you think, which is not matched with them! (6 pieces)
2025
Natural Colour, Gouache Colour on Canson
40 x 19 in
The “RED” love
2023
Watercolour, Gouache Colour, Natural Colour, Drawing, Alta Dye on Rice Paper Pasted on Watercolour Paper
18 x 26 in
DUGGA DUGGA
2025
Natural Pigment, Gouache Colour, Pen Ink, Golden and Silver Foil, Khariya on Handmade Traditional Surface
22 x 42 in
Endless education
2025
Natural Pigment, Gouache Colour, Watercolour, Drawing, Colour Pencil, Khariya on Canson Paper
22 x 30 in
She making a muffler with her imaginative colour, for me
2024
Mixed Media on Rice Paper Paste
22 x 31 in
Horse’s egg
2023
Natural Colour, Tea Stain, Alta Dye on Rice Pasted on Fabiano
10 x 14 in
This is very fishy
2021
Watercolour, Ujala Dye on Paper
19 x 22 in
This is very reddish II
2025
Gouache Colour, Alta Dye, Natural Colour on Process Paper Board
8 x 8 in
Dystopia
2020
Watercolour, Alta Dye, Tea Stain, Charcoal on Paper
10 x 18 in
A sweet memory
2025
Natural Pigment, Flower Colour, Gouache Colour, Watercolour, Pencil, Lokta Paper Pasted on Canson Paper
22 x 30 in
It’s a win
2023
Natural Pigment, Gouache Colour, Tea Stain, and Block Print on Rice Paper Paste on Pata Cloth Scroll Surface
42 x 14 in
They are waiting for delicious food at the dinner table
2024
Natural Colour, Gouache Colour, Tea Stain on Rice Paper Paste on Patta Cloth Surface
32 x 22 in
Time leaves an impression on everything, maybe one day I will also turn into an impression
2023
Watercolour, Tea Stain, Natural Colour on Rice Paper Paste
22 x 31 in
A beautiful home
2025
Natural Pigment, Gouache Colour, Watercolour, Drawing, Colour Pencil, Khariya on Canson Paper
22 x 30 in
Can you see yourself?
2024
Gouache Colour, Natural Colour, Tea Stain on Rice Paper Pasted on Fabiano
11 x 31 in
The disturbing orange
2024
Watercolour, Tea Stain, Natural Colour on Rice Paper Paste on Fabiano
22 x 31 in