Introduction

The 2026 Sikhlens Calendar is Art of the Singh Twins: A Personal Story. The works this year pay tribute to their father, Dr. Karnail Singh, who in 1980 drove them from England through Europe, the Middle East, and Pakistan, then around India for almost a year so they could learn their cultural heritage.

They were teenagers on that trip. It is where they found Indian miniature painting, the tradition that still shapes how they work. Amrit and Rabindra K.D. Kaur Singh call their style Past-Modern: Indian miniature aesthetics mixed with other traditions, and later with digital tools. They write about empire, colonialism, and identity as British Asians.

Liverpool made them Honorary Citizens in 2010. In 2011 they each received an MBE for services to the Indian miniature tradition of contemporary art. The year opens with the Daddy in the Sitting Room series, four student paintings of their father at home in England reading a medical journal. They made those works after university tutors dismissed Indian tradition as backward. Sikhlens also supported their 2025 book Slaves of Fashion.