India Art Fair 2023: Debashish Paul ’s sculptural dresses reflect his inner worlds

Source Mint by Avantika Bhuyan
There is a sense of the spiritual in Debashish Paul’s performance. As he walks around the NSIC Grounds, Okhla—venue of the 2023 edition of the India Art Fair—in a sculptural dress, wearing a headgear of matkas, it feels like he is exploring his queer identity with every movement and folding of the fluid textile forms. He attributes this spiritual element to a childhood spent in Phulia village, located within West Bengal’s Nadia district. “Nadia is where Chaitanya Maha prabhu spread his message of bhakti and prem. While growing up, I both watched and participated in kirtans, jatra and putul naach, a performing style with dolls,” says Paul, who is now based in Varanasi—he moved to the city for his masters degree in sculpture at the Banaras Hindu University in 2019.
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Gallery Espace celebrates 35 years with multiple exhibitions

Source The Sunday Guardian by Noor Anand Chawla
In the 35 years since its inception, Gallery Espace in Delhi has become a veritable institution in the arts space through its promotion of Indian contemporary art. Hence, the celebrations for achieving this milestone are bound to be grand, with four different exhibitions being organised over the winter season. Founded by Renu Modi in 1989, the focus of this gallery has always been on promoting emerging and well-established artists in the contemporary sphere. Over the years, they have organised many exhibitions of note. In the 1990s, there was Drawing ’94, Sculpture ’95, Miniprint ’96, and ‘The Self and The World’ (1997), which brought together 16 Indian women artists from Amrita Sher-Gil to Anjolie Ela Menon. In later years, the gallery began promoting fresh talent and experimental art practices with exhibitions like ‘Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai’ (2001), an exposition of pop and kitsch in contemporary art; ‘Leela’ (2003), which grew out of a residency featuring Bhupen Khakar, Amit Ambalal, Atul and Anju Dodiya in Haridwar; ‘Lo Real Maravilloso’ (2009), an overview of magic realism in art, and two editions of ‘Video Wednesday’ (2008-09 and 2011-12), dedicated to video art.
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Artist Nikhil Chopra and his team HH Art Spaces will curate Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025

Source Indian Express by Vandana Kalra
The sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), which is to be held from December 2025 to March 2026, will be curated by artist Nikhil Chopra and his team HH Art Spaces. The announcement was made by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on November 20. “KMB 2025 is poised to be one of the most memorable editions of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Let us join together to celebrate this spectacular event that fosters the spirit of art, community and dialogue,” said Vijayan. Welcoming Chopra, KMB president Bose Krishnamachari said, “Known for his evocative and immersive work, Nikhil’s collaboration with the KBF will undoubtedly bring in a fresh and dynamic perspective to the biennale, delivering an experience, and promises to resonate deeply with the visitors, both from Kerala and around the world.”
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Serpentine announce 2025 exhibition highlights

Source FAD Magazine by Mark Westall
Serpentine has announced hightlights from their 2025 exhibition program. Solo exhibitions of Arpita Singh, Giuseppe Penone and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley will be presented in the galleries. Next year will also mark a quarter century since Serpentine’s ambitious annual Pavilion commission began with Dame Zaha Hadid’s inaugural structure in Hyde Park in 2000. “We are honoured to kickstart 2025 with London’s first institutional exhibition by Arpita Singh, who for more than half a century has produced a prolific body of work as one of India’s most singular painters and whom we first encountered during the research for the 2007 exhibition at Serpentine South titled Indian Highway. Through a practice that blends Bengali folk art with modernist explorations of identity, Singh vividly portrays scenes of life and imagination, stories, and symbols, uniting the personal and the universal. This landmark exhibition builds on Serpentine’s legacy of spotlighting trailblazing artists yet to receive global recognition for their work, like Luchita Hurtado, Faith Ringgold, Hervé Télémaque, James Barnor, Kamala Ibrahim Ishag, and Barbara Chase-Riboud.” Bettina Korek, CEO, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director
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‘Ulcerous wounds, skin and bones’: How Chittaprosad’s searing sketches chronicled the Bengal famine

Source ScrollIn by Avishek Ray
Weaponised against this censorial attitude, Chittaprosad’s famine drawings must be credited to have practically invented a language appropriate for speaking of an otherwise “unspeakable event” that is, the famine and the resultant experiences of refugeehood, which were, according to many scholarly accounts, contrived by the British imperial policies. Among other things, such traumatic experiences challenge the discursive limits of representation. Both the colonial administration and the bourgeoisie art world maintained certain reservations about their depiction. Thinking in these terms, the famine drawings function as an important vector between experiences of refugeehood, institutional censorship, the grammar of representation and the ethics of spectatorship. It is necessary for me to add that, in delineating Chittaprosad’s famine drawings as iconoclastic, I am speaking principally as a scholar of mobility; and I must insist that readers note the subtitle of Chittaprosad’s Hungry Bengal: “a Tour through Midnapur District” [italics mine]. Of significance here is to consider how, in this context, Chittaprosad himself embodied the “travelling artist” – a figure that stands in contrast to the imagery of the salon painter – working from outside of the studio set-up and making his sketches and journal entries always on the move.
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Subodh Gupta’s artistic homecoming with a solo show at the Bihar Museum

Source LifeStyle Asia by Akshita Nahar Jain
Subodh Gupta, one of India’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary artists, returns to his roots with ‘The Way Home’, a major solo exhibition opening at the Bihar Museum in Patna this November. In an exclusive interview with Lifestyle Asia, Gupta reflects on the significance of returning to Bihar, his birth state, and how his work has evolved in conversation with his personal experiences and India’s broader cultural shifts. Subodh Gupta’s works are particularly resonant in the context of the Bihar Museum — a place where traditional heritage and contemporary culture converge. Designed under the tutelage of architect, Kenzo Tange, the Bihar Museum offers a setting that is both deeply rooted in the the region’s history and forward-looking in its embrace of contemporary art. Inaugurated in 2015, it houses a vast collection of ancient artefacts, particularly from the Maurya and Gupta periods, as well as more recent Buddhist relics. These historical works, alongside folk and modern art exhibitions, set the stage for a dynamic conversation between the ancient and the contemporary, the sacred and the everyday. This dialogue is central to Subodh Gupta’s practice, making the Bihar Museum the perfect venue for his exhibition.
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The rebel painter who ushered in a new era of Indian art

Souce BBC by Janhavee Moole
Some artists become legends in their lifetime yet remain a mystery years after their death. Indian painter Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde, born 100 years ago on 2 November 1924, was one such master. Considered one of South Asia's greatest abstract painters, Gaitonde was part of a rebellious generation of artists who laid the foundation for a new era of Indian art in the mid-20th Century. He was deeply inspired by the techniques used by Western painters but his work remained rooted in Asian philosophy, infusing light and texture in ways that, admirers say, evokes a profound sense of calmness. His paintings were meant to be "meditations on the light and universe", says Yamini Mehta, who worked as the international head of South Asian Art at Sotheby’s. "The play of light and shadows and texture makes these paintings dynamic." In a career that spanned decades, Gaitonde never pursued fame or fortune. But his works continue to grab attention at auctions, years after his death in 2001. In 2022, an untitled oil painting by him fetched 420m rupees (nearly $5m; £3.9m), setting a new record for Indian art at that time. The bluish shades of the work reminded viewers of large expanses of the sea or sky. Gaitonde lived as a recluse for most of his life. He was deeply impacted by Japanese Zen philosophy and this meditative mindset was often reflected in his paintings. “Everything starts from silence. The silence of the canvas. The silence of the painting knife. The painter starts by absorbing all these silences… Your entire being is working together with the brush, the painting knife, the canvas to absorb that silence and create,” he told journalist Pritish Nandy in a rare interview in 1991.
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Meet the artists: The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975 - 1988 - Barbican London

We spoke with six of the artists during their visit to the Barbican for the exhibition opening. Featuring Anita Dube, Sudhir Patwardhan, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Sheela Gowda, Sunil Gupta and Nalini Malani.

Art Exhibition In Delhi: Celebrating 100 Years Of Four Icons Of Modern Indian Art

Source Times Now by Ishita Roy
In a dazzling tribute to four pioneers of modern Indian art—F.N. Souza, K.G. Subramanyan, V.S. Gaitonde, and Ram Kumar—an extraordinary retrospective titled 'Creating the Century: Four Iconic Artists' was inaugurated on October 29, 2024, at the Triveni Kala Sangam. Curated by renowned art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, the exhibition marks the centenary of these artistic legends, whose distinct yet interconnected journeys helped define India's artistic identity in the 20th century. "A happy coincident", is what the Raza Foundation's managing trustee Ashok Vajpeyi calls the exhibition honouring the four pioneers of modern Indian art, all born in 1924. Curated by art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, 'Creating the Century: Four Iconic Artists' marks the centenary of FN Souza, KG Subramanyan, VS Gaitonde, and Ram Kumar.
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Debashish Paul presents narratives of queer repression and resurgent hope at Emami Art

Source Stir World by Manu Sharma
Emami Art, a space for contemporary art in Kolkata, India, is currently presenting A Thousand Years of Dreaming, a solo exhibition by Debashish Paul, an Indian artist from Nadia district in West Bengal. The show is on view from September 6 - October 26, 2024, and is curated by Mario D’Souza, director (programs) at Kochi Biennale and co-artistic director and curator, HH Art Spaces. The exhibition centres around the short film Hazaro Saalon ka Sapna (2024), which translates to the exhibition’s title, and includes various costumes, mixed media works and sculptures that appear in or are inspired by the work. A Thousand Years of Dreaming is Paul’s first solo show at the gallery and offers a jarring and surreal look at the repression and hope that typify the romantic and sexual lives of queer Indian men. STIR visited the show at Emami Art, where it caught up with Paul for an interview that sheds light on his articulation of queerness, and how he positions his work vis à vis the queer art being created in the West.
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Durga Puja pandals | When Kolkata rivals the Venice Biennale

Source The Hindu by Sharan Apparao
Every year, during Durga Puja, nearly three crore people visit Kolkata’s pandals — up for just five days. But now, the evolving nature of public art during this season is catching the attention of the art cognoscenti, rivalling any of the big art shows around the world. Over the last decade, more and more contemporary artists have been involved in conceptualising, designing, and orchestrating massive installations that have gone far beyond conventional pujo pandals. An explosion of creativity post-COVID has only boosted this vernacular vocabulary. As a novice pandal-hopper, I was recently part of a small preview group, which included art aficionados Lekha Poddar (of Devi Art Foundation), Saloni Doshi (founder, Space 118), artists Sakshi Gupta and Suhasini Kejriwal, and a few diplomats — invited by my artist friend Sayntan Maitra. Over three evenings, we visited intricately-crafted pavilions, met the artists, artisans and technicians behind the installations, and even caught a show by itinerant puppeteers in the intimacy of a private courtyard.
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A century on, Begum Rokeya’s feminist science fiction is still inspiring Indian artists

Source Scroll In by Kamayani Sharma
n a 2021 article for The Caravan, Devangana Kalita, a member of the women’s collective Pinjra Tod jailed in relation to the 2020 Delhi riots under a draconian law, shared her drawing featuring women swimming among fish with their fists raised sto the sun in a gesture of political resistance. The work was inspired by the illustrations of artist Durgabai Vyam, in the Pradhan Gond style, for a story called Sultana’s Dream: “We had a reading session of the story in our barrack one night,” writes Kalita in a letter published in the article. “It felt special, warm and familiar…” What was this old tale that inspired and heartened Kalita, an activist who is part of a movement seeking to liberate women from patriarchal fetters like curfews, confinement and surveillance in the name of safety and security? How does it appear to have become reactivated in contemporary Indian visual culture? And what does this reactivation tell us about the times we live in, seemingly distant from the historical moment of the story’s origin?
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"I am a child of the Indian Ocean" - Shiraz Bayjoo on his practice and politics

Source Stir World by Chintan Girish Modi
Shiraz Bayjoo, an artist who was born in the Mauritian capital Port Louis and has called London home for over two decades, unpacks histories of colonialism with a rare tenderness that seeks accountability without being overwhelmed by rage. With his training as a student at the University of Arts Institute, Cardiff, and as a young artist-in-residence working with charities for the homeless, he developed a visual language and a research-based practice championing the marginalised. Whether he is grinding pigments for paintings or rummaging through colonial records in dusty archives, there is a strong awareness of the movements and interconnectedness of people, flora and fauna, languages and seasons. He is keen to speak of the violence of the past in a manner that helps us understand, not sensationalise, and walk together in the direction of healing.
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The Imaginary Institution of India Art 1975–1998 The Barbican London

Source The Barbican
Featuring artwork by over 30 Indian artists, this major exhibition is bookended by two transformative events in India’s history: Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. The fraught period between these years was marked by social upheaval, economic collapse, and rapid urbanisation. Within this turbulence, ordinary life continued, and artists made work that distilled historically significant episodes as well as intimate moments and shared experiences. Across a range of media, the vivid, urgent works on show – about friendship, love, desire, family, religion, violence, caste, community, protest – are deeply personal documents from a period of tremendous change. This is the first institutional exhibition to cover these definitive years, with many works never before seen in the UK.
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Three iconic female Indian artists, born pre-independence, tell us how they broke into a male-dominated art landscape

Source Vogue India by Gautami Reddy
The four women—now venerated artists in their seventies and eighties—started their careers together in the 1970s during a period of intense change in India. Indira Gandhi had just declared a national emergency; a sharp spike in population had been reported; inflation was at a record high and student protests were breaking out all over the country. Despite this turmoil, or perhaps because of it, a new wave of feminist film, theatre and music emerged. Galvanised by this revolutionary spirit, Malani, Sheikh, Parekh and Singh spent the next decade breaking into India’s male-dominated art landscape. They commemorated their efforts with a series of all-women travelling exhibitions titled Through The Looking Glass in 1989.
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India Art Fair expands into Mumbai

Source Artforum
The India Art Fair, held annually since 2008 in New Delhi, has announced the launch next year of a novel iteration taking place in Mumbai. Focusing on art and design from South Asia, the new India Art Fair Contemporary will host between fifty and seventy Indian and international exhibitors at the city’s Jio World Garden from November 13 to November 16. The fair will additionally promote cross-disciplinary collaborations between art and design and will point up Mumbai’s history as a global port by featuring work from South Asia, Africa, and South America. The fair, like its New Delhi predecessor, is owned and operated by Angus Montgomery Arts (AMA), which runs regional art fairs including Hong Kong’s Art Central, Shanghai’s Photofairs, Taipei Dangdai, Sydney Contemporary, Singapore’s Art SG, and Yokohama’s Tokyo Gendai.

We don’t know Sosa Joseph’s girls

Source Stir World by Maanav Jalan
A naked woman lays prostrate across the diagonal of a large canvas by Kerala-born artist Sosa Joseph. The work, Śarada (2023-24), painted with Joseph’s characteristic fluidity and a more sensual palette is among the 14 on view across two floors at David Zwirner gallery in London, in her first European solo exhibition Pennungal: Lives of women and girls. In a talk at the gallery, Joseph explains that the title of the show, Pennungal, is a “not so respectful, dismissive way of addressing women in Malayalam,” her mother tongue, and a word that depending on the tone can connote something like, "oh women, useless creatures”.
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A pioneer of performance art in India reflects on her decades-long journey

Source Scroll In by Kamayani Sharma
Today, every major Indian art event, be it a biennial or a fair, features performance artworks in its programme. But despite the form’s contemporary boom, its history in India is still inchoate. As art historian Rakhee Balaram says in a 2022 essay, “The genesis of performance art in India, including the histories of the 1980s, has yet to be written…” One person who is all too familiar with this history is Ratnabali Kant, a pioneer of performance art and, as art historian Partha Mitter points out, the first Indian artist to synthesise performance and installation.
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100 years after his birth, Francis Newton Souza’s art is seeing the resurgence it deserves

Source Christie's
Francis Newton Souza’s story is marked by rebellion and determination. Souza, who was born in Goa, India in 1924, was expelled from school twice as a youth before ultimately deciding to become an artist. Opting to join the company of other radical artists and revolutionaries, he joined India’s Communist party in 1947 and co-founded the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG). However, Souza quickly grew frustrated with the lack of patronage and aesthetic identity in India. Looking for acceptance, he left his native country in 1949 bound for London. For nearly two decades, Souza would remain in the English capital. It was during those years that, through challenge and hardship, the artist would define his career and cement his legacy as one of India’s most celebrated modern painters. In honour of the artist’s centenary, Christie’s is proud to present Francis Newton Souza: The London Years, Masterworks from the Collection of Navin Kumar, on view in our New York gallery from 13–18 September. Chronicling his time in London, the exhibition features 26 artworks from the groundbreaking years Souza spent in Europe.
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Artist Jyoti Bhatt wins Balkrishna Doshi: Guru Ratna Award 2024

Source Stir World
The sophomore honoree of the Balkrishna Doshi: Guru Ratna Award is Professor Jyoti Bhatt, accorded the prestigious award in recognition of his exceptional contributions to visual arts and fine arts education. "It is with great reverence and admiration that we recognise Shri Jyoti Bhatt for his untiring commitment to furthering arts education, his quest for meaning and empathic self-awareness as an artist," Vastu Shilpa Foundation announces. Bhatt, a Padma Shri awardee, is a distinguished artist and revered educator who has had a transformative impact on the art world through his innovative practice and philosophical approach to art education.
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Godawari Dutta: The Model Woman Of Mithila Painting

Source Outlook by Arvind das
Godawari Dutta (1930-2024), the renowned Mithila artist, was among the galaxy of fine artists that Mithila has produced in the past sixty years. With her death, an important chapter of this traditional art form comes to a close, but her legacy lives on. Dutta was born in Bahadurpur village in Darbhanga district. Her mother Subhadra Devi, herself a well-known artist, was her guru. She told me: “My mother’s paintings, and those of Padma Shri awardee Jagdamba Devi of Jitwarpur, had a ‘folk touch’ in them. With the advent of modern education, there has been a change in both the subject matter and style.” She said: “No wedding ceremony can be completed in Mithila without painting.” In the 1960s, Madhubani paintings transitioned from wall paintings to paper, making them easier to buy and sell. Thanks to pioneer artists such as Jagdamba Devi, Sita Devi, Ganga Devi, Mahasundari Devi, Godawari Dutta and Baua Devi, very soon, it caught the attention of art connoisseurs across the world.
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These typography artists are introducing vernacular fonts to their creations

Source Hapers Bazaar India by Barry Rodgers
India’s linguistic landscape is a testament to its rich cultural heritage, boasting a myriad of languages, each adorned with a unique script that reflects centuries of tradition and evolution. From the flowing curves of Devanagari to the intricate loops of Tamil, these scripts not only convey language but also embody a visual narrative deeply rooted in history and culture. The diversity of Indian scripts serves as a wellspring of inspiration for artists and designers, offering a canvas where tradition meets innovation in a harmonious blend of aesthetics. India has been witnessing a revival of typography artists who are bringing an alternate perspective to Indian scripts, and melding linguistic influences to birth unique and distinct types.
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Amar Gallery celebrating surrealist Dora Maar

Source Meer by Patricia Gomes
Amar Singh is a British-Indian art gallery owner, art dealer, film producer, female rights advocate, LGBQT+ ally, and philanthropist. Amar is an activist who has been instrumental in fighting against LGBQT+ conversion therapy in India, and he has campaigned for the legislation of same-sex relationships in India. Amar’s art inspirations include Helen Frankenthaler, Dora Maar, Jean Cocteau, Lynne Mapp Drexler, Grace Harrigan, Perle Fine, Judith Godwin, Lawrence Calcagno, Alice Baber, Howard Tangye—most of these trailblazing artists he has shown at his first London gallery in Islington.
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Gulam Mohammed Sheikh talks to Bazaar India about figurative art, his evolution as an artist, his influences, and more.

Source Haper's Bazzar India by by Jishnu Bandyopadhyay
For more than six decades, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh has been a weaver of worlds. Not on a loom, but on canvas, and with words as fine as threads. He is a painter, a poet, and a writer who sees time not as a linear path, but as a shimmering fabric where past, present, and future intertwine. Bazaar India sits down with the 87-year-old for a conversation at his exhibition at Mumbai’s Chemould Prescott Road, titled Kaarawaan and Other Works, organised in association with Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery.
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The 7 best museums in Mumbai

Source Conde nast Traveller by Prachi Joshi
The bustling megapolis of Mumbai may be known as the financial capital of the country, but it’s also a treasure trove of history, culture, and art. Its museums not only preserve the rich legacy of the region but also provide a vibrant platform for artistic expression. From ancient history to contemporary art to the wondrous world of cinema, there’s something for every kind of museum geek. An added bonus is the remarkable architecture of these museums, many of which are housed in historical buildings. For the discerning culture vulture, here are the 7 best museums in Mumbai.
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