Art fundraiser by ICAAD in New York

by Namita Kulkarni · Published January 28, 2026 · Updated January 30, 2026

If you had told me in 2020 when I returned to my art practice after many years that I would someday exhibit my work at an event in New York and watch my paintings get auctioned (by an auctioneer from Sotheby’s no less), I would’ve asked you what you’re smoking.

Last month I had a wonderful experience exhibiting my art at Canvas of Change, a fundraiser and live auction in Manhattan, New York. My series of 9 paintings on the subject of colonialism as the cause of the climate crisis and the accompanying text is also on a virtual exhibit on the ICAAD website here.

Every painting has a story that inspired it and research that grounded the inspiration, so I hope you will take the time to read the accompanying text to each of them.

If you’d like to read more on the subject, the 6th IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report came out in April 2022, naming colonialism as the historical and ongoing driver of the climate crisis.

The event was organized by ICAAD (International Center of Advocates Against Discrimination), a human rights organization that has been doing incredible work especially in the field of gender-based violence in the Oceanic countries. The evening brought together artists, advocates, technologists, funders, and friends to celebrate the role of creative practice in advancing human rights—and to collectively support ICAAD’s work at the intersection of art and advocacy. I’m deeply honored to have been part of ICAAD’s Canvas for Change program.

Back in December 2021, I saw a post on Facebook about ICAAD’s call for artists’ proposals for an art series on any human rights subject. Colonialism as the cause of the climate crisis was something I’d been thinking and reading about in the preceding months, so I sat down to write a three-page proposal on this subject. The deadline was in a few days and I’d had a long, angry and exhausting day so that made for just the right frame of mind to pack a punch in those three pages. Within a week, I heard from Erin at ICAAD that my grant application had made the cut.

ICAAD guided me and the other artists through a two-month human rights course in the summer of 2022, before we all began making the art on our chosen subjects. That course gave me a good foundation on the subject of human rights, the many dark histories of human rights violations, the way people around the world have put their bodies on the line for their right to live and just how interconnected our lives are. As a former law student it definitely awakened the nerd in me and tested my understanding of the world at every step. I’m hugely grateful to ICAAD for the guidance and support I received throughout the entire project

Here are some visual snippets of the evening:

Here’s me speaking about the experience of working with ICAAD

And about the role of art in social change