5 min readNew DelhiAug 15, 2026 12:58 PM IST First published on: Aug 15, 2026 at 12:58 PM ISTHis professors at Mumbai’s JJ School of Art advised him to make larger works but Kumar Misal stuck to smaller pieces. “I just didn’t have the money to buy bigger canvases or paper,” says the 31-year-old artist from Kolhapur’s Kumbhoj village (Maharashtra). Over a decade later, he is among the promising new voices in Indian art, most recently, receiving the Emerging Artists Award 2026 by FICA and Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation. Addressing agrarian issues and Adivasi rights, Kumar’s work is at once aesthetic, evokes empathy and serves as a socio-political tool.Kumar was born into a family of farmers. He had an artistic bent of mind even as a child, but pursuing a career in art never occurred to him. He imagined his future in a secure government job. Like many young boys in his village, he appeared for state police exams. He cleared the written but he “couldn’t pass the physical”. A distraught Kumar found reassurance in his former teacher who had once advised him to think about a career in art. “I had ignored it. It did not seem realistic,” he recalls. A failed attempt later, Kumar not just cracked the JJ School of Arts entrance exam, but also ranked second. That was, however, only a quarter of the battle won.