Singapore based Artist Aaradhya Sunder Named a Winner of the 7th Arts Olympiad
ICAF presented the Singapore-based 12-year-old with a Certificate of Exceptional Artistic Accomplishment in Washington
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ICAF presented the Singapore-based 12-year-old with a Certificate of Exceptional Artistic Accomplishment in Washington on July 28 for The Artist-Athlete.
WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, July 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Aaradhya Sunder, a 12-year-old artist based in Singapore, has been named a winner of the 7th Arts Olympiad by the International Child Art Foundation. At a ceremony in Washington on July 28, 2026, she received a Certificate of Exceptional Artistic Accomplishment recognizing her “as a winner of the 7th Arts Olympiad, the world’s largest school art program, for making an outstanding artistic contribution to the 7th World Children’s Festival on July 25-27, 2026, at the National Mall across from the U.S. Capitol.” The certificate is signed by ICAF Founder and Chairman Dr. Ashfaq M. Ishaq.
The work she presented, The Artist-Athlete, argues that a child should not have to choose between creativity and athletic discipline. The festival also served as the national children’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
In The Artist-Athlete (2025, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 46 cm), a pale palette fills the upper two-thirds of the canvas, its surface divided by a vertical gold line and horizontal bands. A hoop and backboard are drawn in thin red outline directly onto that surface, with a small figure shooting toward it, creating the effect of one field serving as both mixing surface and court. Within the palette, a second figure raises a ball in one hand and holds a brush in the other, while an oversized brush cuts diagonally across the composition, its bristles breaking past the palette into the blue at the upper right.
“I did not want to show art and sport as separate,” said Aaradhya, who participates in several sports as well as visual art.
During the festival, Dr Ishaq viewed the painting and spoke with Aaradhya about it. He then issued two signed documents on ICAF letterhead: a recommendation and an Artistic and Developmental Appraisal of The Artist-Athlete, a critique of a single work rather than a testimonial.
In the appraisal, Dr Ishaq read the basketball as a symbol of movement, concentration, teamwork and repeated practice, and wrote that the composition communicates energy rather than a static portrait. Its underlying argument, he observed, is that children should not be confined to a single ability, label or expectation.
“What distinguishes Aaradhya is not merely her ability to make art, but her emerging capacity to use art as a means of thought,” Dr Ishaq wrote.
Calling the artist-athlete an integrated ideal founded on imagination, discipline, resilience and self-expression, Dr Ishaq recommended that Aaradhya continue studying anatomy, gesture, proportion and the representation of movement, and extend the idea to other athletic forms and media.
Aaradhya also appeared in the WJLA/ABC7 studio for an interview on Good Morning Washington, with The Artist-Athlete beside her. WJLA published an official digital feature with the embedded interview on July 27 under the title, “12-year-old artist Aaradhya Sunder talks about her passion for art and sports.”
Washington was not the first written assessment of her work. In 2025 and 2026, her works were selected by the jury of the Salon des Artistes Français for Art Capital at the Grand Palais in Paris, through Galerie Linda Farrell. Alain Bazard, president of the section covering painting, works on paper, tapestry, mural and digital art within the Société des Artistes Français, reviewed her work in writing in both years.
Her 2026 entry, The Girl Who Paints Her Soul, is a graphite and mixed-media self-portrait against a red ground carrying a repeated blue floral motif that continues across the sitter’s garment, creating the effect of a figure partly absorbed into her own background. “In this work, the young artist takes on a subject usually reserved for established artists, given the difficulties it entails,” Bazard wrote in a review translated from the French.
Aaradhya has created more than 200 original works across painting, drawing, mixed media and claymation. Six of her claymation works were exhibited at the Gallery Children’s Biennale, National Gallery Singapore; she was a laureate at an international children’s art exhibition in Beijing in 2025; and her work has featured in three TEDx-linked Art exhibitions in Singapore. Her development has included early training with German School and American School, mentorship with Dipti Karki in Delhi, sustained studio instruction at Little Artists Art Studio in Singapore under Shalini Kapoor, Junior Arts learning associated with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), and MoMA online children’s programs.
Her practice has moved from observation and environmental responsibility toward self-portraiture, identity and the body in motion. In his recommendation, Dr Ishaq said Aaradhya merits consideration for curated youth exhibitions, museum and arts-education programs, artistic mentorship and international platforms, and recommended her to curators, educators and institutions committed not merely to displaying the work of young artists, but to helping them develop depth, independence and a sustained artistic voice.
Her portfolio is available through DreamArtCove.com
Anuraag Sunder
J Syzygia Consultants
+65 8314 9111
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