Last year, when director Jaya Asokan mounted her first India Art Fair (IAF) show—she took over from Jagdip Jagpal in 2021 inclusivity and a stress on the digital space were her calling cards. This year, she carries the same ethos forward with the first-ever poster zine titled Fire in the Belly, featuring eight women artists and creative powerhouses, comprising IAF 2022 debutant Aravani Art Project and the fiery Meena Kandasamy among others. The fair also presents the first-ever Digital Artists in Residence, where each of the chosen artists will present unique ways of looking at the world in interactive digital art projects and installations made in response to the theme ‘Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary’.
True to spearheading inclusivity, there will also be workshops for persons with disabilities put together by Access for All, a platform that pushes boundaries of physical, intellectual, and social access. “For me, more than anything, the IAF is a place of discovery. We take great pride in championing stories and achievements of artists emerging from India and South Asia. Our goal has always been to bring diversity into each edition of the fair. We realise this is only possible when there is adequate representation from different members of the community,” says Asokan. Watch out for these four artists at the 14th edition of the IAF to be held from February 9-12 at the NSIC Grounds, Delhi.
Devika Sundar
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In the seventh year of partnering with BMW, Bengaluru artist Devika Sundar brings her version of the design wrap for the latest BMW X7. Sundar is the winner of the IAF and BMW India-led ‘The Future is Born of Art’ commission, which was launched in the 2022 edition.
A take on magical realism so common to the writing of Gabriel García Márquez and Salman Rushdie, the design envisages a deeply interconnected universe with imagined other-worldly creatures floating in a star-studded night sky. She also runs the Hanno Terrace Studio in Bengaluru, which uses art as a therapeutic medium of release and outlet for children and adults from diverse backgrounds. No wonder, she is a favourite with Asokan.
Vayeda Brothers
Since its inception, IAF’s aim has been to showcase the country’s fast-evolving local arts scene. In this edition, the local imprint will be present right at the fair façade, which will boast a mural by Warli artists, the Vayeda Brothers, stressing the role of sustainable living that is inherent to shaping the future. Tushar and Mayur Vayeda, who come from the back-of-beyond village of Ganjad in Maharashtra, bring in modern sensibilities as they chronicle their memories and the images of community life in their art. In fact, the brothers themselves were unaware of the global imprint of Warli till a group of Japanese artists arrived in their village in 2012 for a collaborative wall art project.
Mira Felicia Malhotra
As part of the Digital Artists in Residence, Mira Felicia Malhotra unleashes repressed female rage through her neon-coloured illustrations inspired by the ‘saas-bahu TV serials’. The works border on the satirical and harness a sense of freedom. The graphic designer and founder of Studio Kohl in Mumbai uses pop-art colours to talk of gender dynamics. She prides herself in merging Indian art history, folk art and alternative sub-cultures in conceptualising her art. Women’s ambitions, passions, passing thoughts and greatest desire play an important role in her artworks through which she wants to show her gender “in ways that are typically missing in mainstream media”.
Debashish Paul
At the fair, Varanasi-based Debashish Paul will open up about his inner joys and challenges of being queer in a performance art piece, wedged between a memory and a story. Paul’s childhood in Nadia district in West Bengal with its slant towards spirituality and its thriving handloom sari centre, impacted the young mind, which was busy sewing stories with scraps of textile. Later, his education in Varanasi opened a world of possibilities where he took to working across mediums, leaning towards the use of rice paper in crafting props using his knowledge of sculpting. This brought forth his frequent use of ‘sculptural costume’ that are always gender-fluid in nature.