maansi jain (b. 1992 munich, germany) is an artist living and working between Berlin, Paris, NYC and New Delhi.
Their practice engages photography as a material surface, transforming analog images into sculptural forms that interrogate memory, and collective notions of reality: indulging light as both a wave and a particle and a phenomenon beyond the ephemeral. Through processes of warping and reconfiguring light-sensitive media, they expand the photograph's purview from documentation and into myth.
Alongside their sculptural positions, jain maintains an embodied works-on-paper practice, exploring temporal mapping, abstraction and surrealist figurations as systems to explore the limits of consciousness in encountered atomic matter. Their durational performances draw on feminist and South Asian modernist histories, reactivating figures such as Amrita Sher-Gil and Kamala Das through scent landscape making, photographic documentation, painting, drawing and text.
jain studied photography at the Sorbonne and semiotics at New York University in Paris, Berlin, and NYC, game theory at University of Pennsylvania, and a Survey of Modern Mathematics at Columbia University. Most recently, jain's work has been presented at Contemporary Fine Arts (Berlin/Basel), Serendipity Arts Festival in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective (Goa), and India Art Fair in partnership with Gallery Ske (Delhi), among others. jain's work is held in private collections across Europe, India, and North America.
New York University (2009–2013) | NYU Paris (2011) | NYU Berlin (2012)
Bachelor of Science in Media, Culture, and Communication | French & Studio Art | Dean's List
Fashion Institute of Technology: Sewing and Patternmaking (2013)
Sorbonne: Photography (2011)
UPENN: Game Theory (2008)
Columbia University: A Survey of Modern Mathematics (2007)
Knickerbocker Furniture: Carpentry Apprenticeship (2018)
Undergraduate Awards: Shortlisted in Visual Arts (2013)
Graduated NYU Cum Laude, NY — Founders' Day Award (2013)
Steinhardt Dean's List (2010–2013)
College of Arts and Sciences Presidential Scholar (2009–2010)
PAR AVION, Neurotitan Gallery, by Best Before & Critical Edge Collectives, Berlin Mitte, DE
VIDEO SCREENING, Harkat Studios, Mumbai/Bombay, IN
TABLOID PRESS, lidar scans and poetic lines from NYC, Paraphernalia and Addenda, Berlin, DE + NY, USA
AS TRANQUIL AS CAN BE, "delhi girls have parisian pastimes too", Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, IN
SAUNA NEVER DRY, premiere of short film "Imagery of Waste and the Other(s)", E&O 11 at PAF, Brussels, BE
"co-create", Refraction Festival x ethBerlin x DOD Berlin, sculptural installation of film "To Glitch Perhaps To Dream" (2022) at CIC, Berlin, DE
Ancient Ingredients May Taste Ever Fresh, with Tabitha Swanson x Burnt Roti, sink installation and Tezos based carbon neutral NFTs, Glass House, London, UK
Les Dragonnes: The Fiasco Show, curated by Arianne Foks, Relais de Belleville, Paris, FR
Supermarket, curated by Julian Weber, New Fears Gallery, Berlin, DE
Emergency Gathering, curated by Jenny Ames, ACUD Club, Berlin, DE
To Glitch Perhaps to Dream, fashion film with KemmlerKemmler for Sicky Mag
Provence, Miguel Abreu Gallery, Manhattan, NY
Auction, Weserhalle Gallery, Berlin, DE
Berlin Photo Week, public installation supported by Berlin Senat, Haubentaucher, Berlin, DE
Constitution Wall, curated by Skye Arundati Thomas, Gallery Ske, India Art Fair, New Delhi, IN
Sunburnt BB, Berlin Art Week, ExGirlfriend Gallery, Berlin, DE
New Femininity #3, Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam, NL
Jennifer Aniston Superfans, Retramp Gallery, Berlin, DE
One Night Stand, ExGirlfriend Gallery, Berlin, DE
Puderpink, Puderraum, Berlin, DE
SOVA #7 Adult, Blender Studio, Berlin, DE
Mopper's Paradise, Sameheads, Berlin, DE
Extended Visions, Blockbuster Exhibitions, Berlin, DE
Maansi Jain and Lucia Sciandro, The Club, Berlin, DE
Berlin Becoming, Deutsches Haus, Manhattan, NY
Food in Context, Entretempo Kitchen Gallery, Berlin, DE
Master Plan, Blockbuster Exhibitions, Berlin, DE
Pablo Benzo x Maansi Jain, Prachtwerk, Berlin, DE
UO Outclass, Center for Creative Practices, Dublin, IE
Electron Salon, LACDA, Los Angeles, CA
1/X, Gallatin Gallery, New York, NY
Works Abroad, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, DE
BETWEEN GULF OF BLANK AND THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, Gru_nd, Wedding, Berlin, DE
I FANCY SOME MORE REST, CRUBA, Mitte, Berlin, DE
Marché Jalousie, L4, Berlin, DE
Zusammen/Arbeiter:innen, Blender Studio, Berlin, DE
48stunden NK, Blender Studio, Berlin, DE
Einmal Rein Alles Raus, Noch Ein Metaphor?!, Blender Studio, Berlin, DE
Club Tropicana, co-curated with Esben Holk, at Howard McCalebb's Dadapost during the Inkubator Residency, Berlin, DE
Where Is My House?, curated by DRY PAINT, Das Gift, Berlin, DE
Dry Paint Presents, Das Gift, Berlin, DE
Kunst! at the Disco, assistant curation by Dr. Asif Akhtar and Alaric Hobbs, intrnt explrr x Tennis Bar, Berlin, DE
Subject to Change, ExGirlfriendBerlin, Wilmersdorf, Berlin, DE
Paranoia, Das Gift, Berlin, DE
Maansi's Warped Tour, All About Indian Food, New York, NY
Tomatoluv Film Premiere, theblushroom.com, Seattle, WA
In Sickness and in Health, May You Glisten with Perspiration, Das Gift, Berlin, DE
INKPIKLE (muse), short film, creative direction by Maansi Jain, directed by Sebastian TJ for Aathira Mannali, Kochi, Kerala, IN
Les Nouvelles Femmes d'Algers, with ANGEL CHAIR, Contemporary Fine Arts, Charlottenburg, Berlin, DE
Director of Creative Media Partnerships (live ongoing performance) for Domina Journal, India Art Fair, Delhi, IN and Art Basel, Basel, CH / Berlin, DE / Paris, FR / Manhattan, NY
Sk8rboi Does a Comedy Set, New Fears Gallery, Berlin, DE
Live painting performance, WAKE YOUR DREAMS, India Art Fair, Delhi, IN
Tomatoluv (Monster Edition), Dornika's BUSH Release, 90mil, Berlin, DE
Live painting performance with WAKE YOUR DREAMS, India Art Fair, Delhi, IN
Tomatoluv: FACE PAINT AGAINST SURVEILLANCE, Boiler Room x Weeeeirdos, Napoleon Complex, Berlin, DE
Poetry reading via bluetooth, Will Kherbek Still Dancing launch, AP Books, Berlin, DE
Tomatoluv, lidar and poetry performance, New Fears Gallery, Backsteinboot, Berlin, DE
Sk8rboi, Künstler Künstlerin's How Long Is Forever 17, Poropati, Berlin, DE
Tomatoluv Explains the Herstory of the Tomato in Hindi, OPIUM HUM, Tabitha Swanson et al.'s Mordorkore, Berlin, DE
Sk8rboi, Club Tropicana, Dadapost, Berlin, DE
«WHEN PAINTINGS WEAR PRADA» — a POSITIONS ART FAIR panel talk written and curated by Maansi Jain with panelists Bojana Perisic (032c), Mira von Osten (CRUBA, Fashion Positions founder), and Dao Tran (Numero Berlin), presented during Berlin Art Week 2025
Guest Lecturer, Theories and Cultural Impact of Media & Technology, Post-Graduate Studies, NYU Tandon School of Engineering's Integrated Design and Media Program, with Dr. Asif Akhtar. Presented lidar-based 3D scans as art and technology in a contemporary context, with a reading on forensic architecture by Eyal Weizman.
Guest Lecturer, Postcolonial Visual Culture, Undergraduate Studies, NYU Steinhardt Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. Presented in conjunction with Berlin-based artist Hito Steyerl's text "In Defense of the Poor Image," originally published in e-flux journal 10 (2009).
High Desert Test Sites by Andrea Zittel, accepted as an alternate, Joshua Tree, CA, USA
Elsewhere and Otherwise 11, Performing Arts Forum, St. Erme, FR
Arianne Foks' Les Dragonnes Studio, Noisy-Le-Sec, Paris, FR
Chaos Theory with Gabriel Catren and Manuel Eguia, Performing Arts Forum, St. Erme, FR
Spring Meeting at Performing Arts Forum — created "dana michel à paf x premier mai à paris" (2019) at Ogutu Moraya, Dana Michel, Jan Ritsema et al., St. Erme, FR
Inkubatory Residency, Howard McCalebb's Dadapost, Berlin, DE
MONOPOL | Ein Zimmer, vier Stunden, viele Ichs
SLEEK | Inside the warped world of Maansi Jain's twisted technicolor
VICE | 'People of Color': Warum diese Fotografin sich über den Begriff lustig macht
Electronic Beats | Tomatoluv at Mordorkore
CNBC | India Art Fair Artists Respond To Crisis In Contemporary Society