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Sanika Phawde (She/They) is an illustrator, educator, cartoonist and reportage artist, born and raised in India, and currently based in Baltimore.
Through autobiographical comics, drawings on location, and illustrated interviews their work strives to capture and communicate instances of emotional connection, immigrant culture, familial tension and the deeper sentiments hiding in the heart of it.
Her comic series “Wedding Juice and Other Melodramas” won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series in 2025 and 2026, the Athenaeum Gives Grant, and The Rob Stull Emerging Artist Award. It was nominated for the Broken Frontier Award for Best Periodical Series in 2025, and was named in The Comics Journal's the Best Comics of 2025 list.
Follow me on Instagram : @TheJackfruitSlayer
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SELECTED CLIENTS
Spotify · Uber · HarperCollins · The New Yorker ·
· Simply Gum · Boston Art Review · Ole & Steen US · McElroy Family Podcasts · Vinegar Syndrome · The Wilderness Society· · Small Press Expo · Acrylicize · Queens Botanical Garden · Loews Hotel & Co · Next Street · Das Magazin · D & AD · Food and Wine Magazine · Mutt Dog · Accenture​ · HP Indigo · Clos du Bois · Cambridge Public Health · Commission · Anthem Entertainment · iHeart Radio · Madame Poupon · Victoria Granof · Fundomo
COMICS FAIRS
Upcoming-
Non Fiction Comics Festival 2026
Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo 2026
Past-
Small Press Expo 2026
Philly Comics Expo 2026
Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival 2026
Comic Arts Maine Portland Festival 2026
Frog Farm 2026
Small Press Expo 2024, 2025
Comics in Color 2026
MoCCA Arts Festival 2018 -- 2026
Comic Arts LA 2025
Sketcher Press Festival 2025
Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase 2025
Comic Arts Maine Portland Festival 2025
Flame Con NYC 2025
Somerville Zine Fest 2025, MA
Watertown Zine Fest 2025, MA
Miss Read: Berlin Art Book Fair 2024
Philly Comics Expo (PCX) 2024
Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo 2024, 2025
Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2018, 2024
Vancouver Comic Arts Festival 2019, 2024
RISD Unbound 2023, 2024
Short Run Seattle 2023, 2025
Queer Trans Zine Fair 2023
Boston Book Arts Fair 2022, 2023
Pictobeach Bazaar 2023
Philly Comics Expo (PCX) 2022
Rendez-vous Carnet Du Voyage
(A Travel Illustration Festival in France) 2018, 2019
Pittsburgh Zine Fest (PZF) 2019
NY Independent Art Book Fair 2019
Comic Arts Brooklyn 2018
Women That Rock 2018
Optikal Asylum (Mumbai) 2020
PRESS
The Comics Beat (Small Press Review)
The Broken Frontier (Small Press Review 2026)
The Broken Frontier (Small Press Review 2025)
The Comics Journal (Best Comics of 2025)
PRINT Mag: Graphic Design
PRINT Magazine: The Daily Heller
American Illustration 38
American Illustration 41
Boston Art Review
Boston Globe
Creative Boom
Seattle Times
The Comics Beat
TCAF Digital Showcase
Paper Planes Magazine (Interview)
Speciwomen Magazine (Interview)
True North Country Comics Podcast (Interview)
Vagabomb
Rendez-vous Carnet Du Voyage
EDUCATION
Parsons School of Design
B.F.A in Illustration 2019,
Dean’s List Scholarship Awardee 2015-2019
Graduated with Departmental Honors
School of Visual Arts
M.F.A in Illustration 2021,
Merit Scholarship Awardee 2019, 2020
LANGUAGES
Native: English, Hindi, Marathi
AWARDS
Comics-
Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series 2026
Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series 2025
Broken Frontier Award for Best Periodical Series (Nominee) 2026
Monsoon Award for Best Webcomic/Serial 2026
Rob Stull Emerging Artist Fund 2026
Athenaeum Gives Grant 2025
Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo Grant 2024
Comics Advocacy Group Grant 2024
Center for Cartoon Studies BIPOC Scholarship 2024
ADC Young Ones Portfolio Award 2021
D&AD New Blood Portfolio Award 2021
Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement in Master's Program 2021
Short Run Seattle's Katie Kelso Travel Grant 2023
MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence 2021
SVA Alumni Scholarship Award 2020
Nominated for Will Eisner Scholarship 2018
Parsons Sketchbook Contest 2016
Parsons Portfolio Contest 2016
Writing-
Pushcart Prize Nominee for Fiction 2023
Subnivean Poetry Award Finalist 2023-2024
PUBLICATIONS
The New Yorker: Culture Desk
The New Yorker: Daily Shouts
The Nation: Opp Art
Food & Spectacle Magazine
Cake Zine
Paper Planes
Fruition Magazine
Spring 2022: Cake Zine Vol 1
VICE
12th Street Journal Art
12th Street Journal Fiction
Hollywood Life
Subnivean Issue 9
Subnivean Issue 10
The Gullet
Smoke Signal 2018 : The Coney Island Issue
Beholder Magazine Issues 1 and 2
GALLERY EXHIBITIONS:
United Nations 2024
Gallery 263, Cambridge 2024
Urbanica Gallery, Boston 2024
Field Arts Gallery, NYC 2024
Providence Public Library 2024
Museum of Fine Arts Boston 2023
'Eat At Your Own Risk' at Out of Box Gallery, Jamestown 2023
Pao Arts Center, Boston 2023
Jersey City City Hall 2021, 2022
SVA Gramercy Gallery 2021
Space Gallery, Portland 2021
Zanbeel Art Gallery: Mapping Out A Field 2021
Push Pull Solo Show 2019
Secrets Risograph show (Hamburg, NYC) 2019
School of Visual Arts Book Show 2019
12th Street Journal 2018
OCD Chocolate 2019
Smush Gallery 2018
Parsons Gala 2017, 2018, 2019
COMICS READINGS
United Nations 2024
Frog Farm 2026
Gutter Comics 2025, 2026
Brookline Booksmith 2026
Heavy Manners Library 2025
Sketcher Press Festival 2025
Crucial Comix Workshop- Drawing Family Stories 2024
Sequential Artists Workshop 2024, 2025
Queer Trans Zine Fair 2023
Carousel Comics Reading 2020, 2022, 2023
Pao Arts Center, Boston 2023
Panels To The People 2019
STORES AND /LIBRARIES
Printed Matter NY
Partners And Son, Philadelphia
Desert Island Comics, Brooklyn
The Beguiling, Toronto
Renate Comics, Berlin
Domino Books (Wholesale Distributor)
Radiator Comics (Wholesale Distributor)
Comicopia, Boston
Atomic Comics, Baltimore
Red Emma's, Baltimore
Stoop Shop Comics, Baltimore
Fantom Comics, DC
Big Planet Comics, DC
Push/Pull, Seattle
Alienated Majesty Books, Austin
Vault of Midnight
Betty's Books
Toadvine books
Floating World Comics, Portland
Hub Comics, Boston
Silver Sprocket, San Francisco
Library of Congress
Heavy Manners Library, Los Angeles
RISD Fleet Library (Zine Collection)
University of the Arts, Library (Comics Collection)
Frick Fine Arts Library (Zine Collection)
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Salt Lake City Public Library
Columbia University Library
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