Commemorating Pride Month, at The Lalit New Delhi’s inhouse gallery Art Junction the ongoing exhibition, ‘Unboxed’ is a celebration of India’s queer artists that centers authenticity, love, identity, and self-expression.
Curated by Naresh Kapuria, director of art and culture at The Lalit, the show features work from over 20 queer artists across the country. He explains that ‘Unboxed’ invites viewers to engage with a wide range of lived experiences — “from personal journeys to larger social themes — captured through powerful and intimate visuals”. The exhibition offers a space where queerness is acknowledged and celebrated in all its complexity and color.
“For us, ‘Unboxed’ is not just a title — it represents liberation from binaries, labels, and expectations,” says Kapuria. “It speaks to breaking free from centuries of societal conditioning, moral policing, and the suffocating norms that have tried to contain queer lives. We chose this word because our queerness, especially in the Indian context, is layered with resistance and resilience. It’s fluid, desi, intersectional, and rooted in cultures that have always embraced multiplicity.”
One of Kapuria’s favourites from the show is ‘The Museum of Masculinity’, a self-portrait of a queer person navigating masculinity while remaining closeted within their own family. “The vulnerability, the rage, the quiet grief — it brought a lump to my throat,” he says. “It reminded me that behind every artwork is someone who’s had to fight to simply be. That is the power of queer art — it doesn’t whisper. It demands to be felt.”
The exhibition also shines a spotlight on younger artists, who Kapuria says are bringing “a new queer language to the table.” He notes, "They’re drawing from drag, meme culture, protest, gender euphoria, and digital intimacy. There’s a refreshing irreverence in their work, but also a raw emotional urgency. Their queerness isn’t asking for acceptance — it’s demanding visibility on their own terms.”
Kapuria was clear from the beginning that the show wouldn’t be reduced to a token Pride Month gesture. Rather than relying on surface-level representation, the exhibition was built to hold space for stories that are often erased, censored, or sanitised. “While the world often views Pride through a global lens, we wanted them to see the fire, depth, and poetry of queer India,” Kapuria says.
‘Unboxed’ will be on display at Art Junction, The Lalit New Delhi, Barakhamba Road till July 31