A Delhi-based independent art scholar, curator and critic, Gayatri Sinha’s primary areas of research revolve around gender and iconography, the role of media and social history. As an art curator, she has looked at lens-based art practices, drawing from both archival and contemporary sources. Sinha studied English Literature and Economics at the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, followed by a postgraduate degree in Media Studies, Social Psychology and Critical Appreciation from the University of Mumbai. Over the course of her career, she has worked as an art critic for various newspapers, including The Indian Express (1981–91), The Telegraph (1991–94) and The Hindu (1995–2006). She is also the recipient of numerous awards and grants, in particular, from the Ford Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She also received the Tate Asia Research Fellowship in 2017.

In 2003, Sinha established Devi Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation operating across Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Varanasi and Jaunpur. The organisation provides financial support to underprivileged women and children while actively promoting and preserving local visual art and folk music, especially the Benaras gayiki. In 2011, Sinha founded CriticalCollective, one of India’s first digital art archives which aims to build and preserve knowledge and scholarship of Indian art. As a scholar, Sinha has lectured extensively on Indian art in institutions such as the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, London, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, National Museum and National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi. She has also authored and edited books on Indian art, in particular, Voices of Change: 20 Indian Artists (2010), Art and Visual Culture in India 1857–2007 (2009), Indian Art: An Overview (2003), Krishen Khanna: A Critical Biography (2001) and Expressions and Evocations: Contemporary Indian Women Artists (1996).

Sinha has also curated a number of exhibitions, including Erasure at theBirla Academy, Kolkata (2019–20), Part Narratives at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2017), The Purple Wall Project at the India Art Summit (2009), Bapu at Saffronart, Mumbai (2009), Public Places Private Spaces, Contemporary Photography and Video Art in India at the Newark Museum and Minneapolis Institute of Arts, (2007–08), I Fear, I Believe, I Desire at Gallery Espace, Delhi (2007), Woman/Goddess (1998–2001) and The Self and the World at NGMA (1997).

At the time of writing, Sinha lives and works in New Delhi.