Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi
(State Academy of Art, U.T. Chandigarh)
is pleased to invite you to the Conferring of the
Lifetime Achievement Award

upon
Diwan Manna
Eminent Artist/Photographer
for his contribution to art and culture

and an audiovisual presentation
THE TURMOIL WITHIN
by the artist

Shri Sudarshan Shetty
renowned artist
will present the award

on Friday 30th October 2026,
at 5.30 pm
at the Auditorium,
Government Museum and Art Gallery,
Sector 10-C, Chandigarh, India

-Bheem Malhotra, Chairman
-Ravinder Sharma, Vice Chairman

Diwan Manna is a pioneer among conceptual photographers in India, acclaimed for elevating photography to a many-layered fine art that is not only a mode of creative self-expression but also embraces philosophy, feminism, political activism and semiotics. The disquieting ambiguity in many of his works invites pause and reflection, as do his arresting images of the ordinariness of life, which evoke a sense of defamiliarization and push the viewer to look anew, with empathy and compassion.

Born in 1958, Bareta, Punjab, Manna began his artistic journey with a five-year diploma in Graphic Art and Printmaking at the Government College of Art, Chandigarh. In the early eighties, drawn by the unexplored potential of the camera, he chose photography as his medium of expression. Excelling in both black-and-white and colour photography, he produced several series of conceptual works, prominent among them titled Shores of the Unknown, After the Turmoil, Alienation, Violence and Conceptual Self-Portraits. Playing with colour, form and imagery, he often appears in the image itself, or outside it, besides it, looking from it or at it, thereby inhabiting multiple spaces simultaneously: the inner realm of the mind, the tangible physical space and the social arena. Though the forms and shapes are familiar and realistic, yet the striking colour imagery, stance and clothing imbue them with mystery.

Manna’s works have been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries notably among these the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India; the Musée des Beaux-Arts Eugène Leroy, Tourcoing, France; Espace Bateau-Lavoir, Paris; the Musée Malraux, Le Havre, France; Wolverhampton Museum, UK, West Midlands Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Dewsbury Museum, UK; and Museum für Indische Kunst (Museum of Indian Art) is now part of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum), Berlin, Germany, along with other solo and group shows in India, Italy, Poland and UK. He has also conducted numerous multimedia workshops in India and the UK.

Manna’s outstanding contribution to the art world has also been the missionary zeal with which he has sought to bring an understanding of contemporary art to the people especially of Punjab and Chandigarh. As Honorary Chairman of the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy, and Honorary President of the Punjab Lalit Kala Academy, and then as Director Triennale India he invited top ranked artists from India and abroad, to present audiovisual presentations along with exhibitions and workshops by renowned artists. More than 300 videos of these events, freely available online, make it arguably the most comprehensive archive on contemporary Indian artists. He created space for scholarships, fellowships and travel grants nurturing the skills and artistic vision of emerging artists particularly in Chandigarh and Punjab.

In recognition of his exemplary contribution and achievements in the art world, Manna has been honoured with the National Academy Award (Lalit Kala Academy, Delhi 1996) the All India Photography Award (AIFACS, Delhi,1995, 1996) and has received State Honours by the Chandigarh Administration as well as from the Federation of Indian Photography.

His works are in the collection of many prestigious museums and private institutions including Museum of Asian Art, Berlin, Germany, Swiss Embassy in India, St-Etienne Metropolitan Council, Deutsche Bank, Govt Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh.

Manna is based in Chandigarh.