AGARTALA: Kamalpur in Tripura may not be the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of international art, but it is where Radha Binod Sharma began a journey that has now landed him in Johnny Depp’s “The People’s Artist” campaign for 2026, barely months after the United Nations Global Peace Council honoured him at the House of Lords.
Sharma, a London-based artist, curator, and founder of IMA FOUNDATION, has been selected as a 2026 ambassador for The Art of Elysium, a United States-based humanitarian arts organisation that takes art programmes into children’s hospitals, elder care facilities, unhoused communities, and special needs schools. The campaign, titled “The People’s Artist,” is presented by Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, who personally wrote to Sharma acknowledging his participation and contribution.
In a letter signed by Jennifer Howell, Founder of The Art of Elysium, Sharma was informed that he had earned his spot as an ambassador for the organisation’s mission, ART HEALS, and was presented with a special participant badge featuring the organisation’s logo, originally designed by artist Shepard Fairey.
The recognition follows closely on another significant honour. In September 2025, Sharma was presented the London Award of Excellence 2025 by the United Nations Global Peace Council at the House of Lords. The awards were presented by Lord Rami Ranger, Dr. Krishna Pujara, and Dr. Barkha Sharma. According to a release issued by the IMA Foundation, the award recognised Sharma’s outstanding contribution as a curator to upholding contemporary, traditional, indigenous, and endangered arts of India.
Sharma’s story, however, begins far from the halls of London. Born in Kamalpur, Tripura, in 1964, he grew up in a region where art and hardship existed side by side. His mother was a well-known Manipuri classical dancer who cultivated his interest in art from an early age. As a child, he witnessed the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and the 1980 Tripura Massacre, experiences that left a lasting mark on him as an artist and as a person.
Despite those early years, he went on to study painting at the prestigious Kala-Bhavana, Viswa-Bharati University, Santiniketan, and later completed a master’s in creative painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Baroda, in 1991. That same year, he received the Kanoria Studio Fellowship. In 1992, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant from Canada followed. By 1994, he had received two more, the Charles Wallace Trust Grant from London and the Delfina Studio year-long residency, which brought him to London, where he has since settled.
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Over nearly four decades, Sharma has exhibited his work worldwide, held numerous solo and group shows, and seen his work auctioned at Sotheby’s New York, Rosebery’s Auction House in the UK, and Osian’s India.
In 2008, during a visit back to India from London, Sharma saw both the depth of artistic talent in the country and the difficulties facing artists, and that observation led to the creation of IMAFOUNDATION. The organisation, registered in London in 2008 and in India in 2019, was built with the purpose of curating, promoting, and cultivating contemporary Indian and international artistic talent, as well as the endangered and indigenous arts of the world. The word “IMA” itself means mother in the Manipuri language, carrying within it the organisation’s core idea of nurturing artistic expression.
Since then, IMAFOUNDATION has run numerous exhibitions, art fairs, seminars, residencies, workshops, and camps, both in India and internationally. Its programmes, carried under the titles ANUBHAV, meaning sensory experience, and Jnana, meaning knowledge, have reached schools, poorer regions of India, and indigenous communities. Among the highlights, in 2019, Sharma conducted a one-day art workshop, Jnana, for 209 indigenous children at the Zion Hill School in Tripura. The same year, a National Teak and Sandalwood Carving Camp was held in Tirupati. In 2020, the ANUBHAV project engaged 22 girls and women from slums in Patna and three Baiga women from Lorha village in Madhya Pradesh, alongside voluntary contemporary artists from Bihar, at Bihar Museum.
Meanwhile, in 2017, IMAFOUNDATION was chosen to represent Indian artistic traditions at the World Humanities Conference hosted by UNESCO in Liege, Belgium. The presentation of Thang-Ta, the endangered martial art form rooted in Manipuri philosophy, at the opening and closing ceremonies of the conference was described as a unique cultural spectacle by an international audience of world leaders.
More recently, in 2023, Sharma conducted a one-day artists workshop at Vishalla, Ahmedabad.
According to the foundation, Sharma has been committed to bringing fine arts to the fore, as it is often overlooked or misunderstood. His focus has been to bridge this gap through exhibitions, mentoring artistic talent, and running projects committed to fostering creativity and growth in both the UK and India.
“For any civilisation our cultural roots are very important. Fine arts are for the public and not just to be secreted away in the galleries, private collections and museums. Fine arts have been missing for a long time whilst music, dance, sports, fashion and food is highlighted everywhere,” Sharma was quoted as saying.
He has also been honoured at the House of Lords in London for his work as an artist, curator, and mentor, with the London Award of Excellence 2025 presented by the United Nations Global Peace Council.
From Kamalpur to the House of Lords to a campaign fronted by one of Hollywood’s most recognised names, Radha Binod Sharma’s journey stands as a reminder that art rooted in the margins of the world can travel remarkably far.