Six galleries to come together for Delhi Contemporary Art Week from September 3

Dec 07, 2023

The Delhi Contemporary Art Week will begin here at Bikaner House from September 3 with the participation of six city-based art galleries, showcasing the works of emerging artists from India and the South Asian region, including Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The six participating galleries -- Blueprint12, Exhibit 320, Gallery Espace, Latitude 28, Shrine Empire, and Vadehra Art Gallery -- will showcase a line-up of artists from India and the sub-continent who have worked across styles, media, themes and techniques.

The exhibition by Gallery Espace, which will showcase the works of 10 contemporary textile art from across India whose practices explore the myriad possibilities of fibre and yarn as art mediums.

While textile designer Gopika Nath crocheted, knitted and embroidered pieces are inspired by the sea and coast of Goa, Devi Seetharam's large compositions are dominated by white mundus, the traditional male attire in Kerala. The selection of artworks features pieces made in wool, silk, jute and assorted fabric, using a variety of techniques - knitting, crochet, batik, weaving, braiding and stitching, quilting and beadwork - to address social, political, ecological, and art historical themes. ''This year the Gallery Espace space at Bikaner House will have a curated presentation of textile art showcasing the many diverse, ingenious and dynamic ways in which contemporary Indian artists are making art with fibre or fabric as material, or as idea, drawing on the rich textile traditions of India and speaking to experiences and concerns that we can all relate to today,'' Renu Modi, founder-director of Gallery Espace, said. The Latitude 28 gallery will showcase the works of Pakistani visual artist Farhat Ali, who primarily focuses on reinterpretation of history and popular imagery. The gallery will also highlight artists, including Jahangir Asgar Jani, Shubham Kumar, Manjot Kaur, Anupama Alias, Chandan Bez Baruah, Gopa Trivedi, Ketaki Sarpotdar, and Khadim Ali. Working with a range of media such as gouache, textile, ceramic and paper, the artists have explored themes of migration, climate change, biodiversity, mythology and socio-political issues.

''The common thread unifying these artists' distinct forms and techniques is the infusion of traditional styles with new media to generate their own personal aesthetic as a comment on the current trends concerning contemporary times, depicting both socio-political and poetic life experiences,'' Bhavna Kakar of Latitude 28 said in a statement. Also part of the art week, Vadehra Art Gallery will be showcasing artists including veterans like Sujith SN, Jagannath Panda, Atul Dodiya, and Sudhir Patwardhan as well as some emerging contemporary artists like Shilpa Gupta, Shrimanti Saha, Sachin George Sebastian, and American-Pakistani artist Zaam Arif. Blueprint12 gallery will be showcasing artists, including Avantika Bawa, Ashfika Rahman, Nidhi Khurana and Shashank Peshawaria, examining the shifting dynamics of people, culture and identities through photographs, paintings and installations. The Exhibit 320 gallery will focus on new media at the exhibition with works from emerging artists including Sumakshi Singh, Kumaresan Selvaraj, Wahida Ahmed, Sareena Khemka, and Gopi Gajwani.

''At DCAW this year, we will be showcasing some new faces. One of them is Wahida Ahmed. Her body of work uses jacquard as a trope to examine the socio-political fabric of Assam. The precarity engendered by the complex interaction of warring identities, capitalist encroachments vote bank politics, and the caprices of the Brahmaputra echoes in the composite and layered aspects of her works,'' Kajaria said. The art week will also feature an exhibition by Shrine Empire gallery, showcasing works by Bangladeshi artist Tayeba Begum Lipi, Baaraan Ijlal, Priyanka D'Souza, Shreyasi Pathak and Divya Singh. In addition to the curated shows by six participating galleries, there will be a group exhibition curated by Girish Shahane, featuring artists from each gallery. The exhibit, titled 'Conjunction of the Spheres', featuring works of 18 artists bases itself on ''the vision of the cosmos articulated by the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia''.

A two-day symposium on September 4-5, titled 'Horizon and Perspective: Curatorial Gaze to Gauge Promise of Art' will delve deeper into the use of archival excavation to reimagine the past, explore the concept of establishing a new world order, emphasise the significance of curatorial collaborations, and discuss community building alongside a radical approach to viewing art. The Delhi Contemporary Art Week will come to a close on September 7.

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