We entered Bikaner House near India Gate on Saturday afternoon to experience some expected and unseen enthusiasm. A group of students stood outside the main building, talking and peering into each other’s phone galleries, possibly to reflect on the works they had viewed at the venue during the fifth edition of Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) that was inaugurated on August 31. Inside the hall, one could witness a grand celebration of the arts.
An initiative to recognise the works of contemporary artists, DCAW brings together seven city-based galleries—Latitude 28, Blueprint 12, Gallery Espace, Nature Morte, Shrine Empire Gallery, Vadehra Art Gallery, Exhibit 320—that attempt to elevate the city’s art scene by familiarising audiences with creative practices of both emerging and illustrious artists. With an exciting artist lineup, walkthroughs, discussions, and workshops, this event is also a space for aesthetes to learn about emerging narratives in the contemporary art space.
“A number of big events happen and art that is decorative and loud is showcased, but the minimal and more conceptual artworks are sidelined. With DCAW, we thought ‘let’s do something with like-minded people and organise activities that are educational’,” shared Bhavna Kakar, founding member of DCAW and founder, of Latitude 28, Lado Sarai.
Turning ‘art’ up a notch
The rise of contemporary art, particularly in South Asia, encapsulates a plurality of themes and issues explored, and the mediums experimented with. This gradual shift is evident through the impactful curation at DCAW. Spread across two floors, DCAW—the week-long art event has an all-women panel at the helm—houses works that are experimental yet rooted in present day reality. Take for instance, Lahore-based artist Noor Ali Chagani’s ‘Untitled (Together) 2022’ exhibited by Latitude 28.
The artist uses terracotta bricks and acrylic paints to narrate the story of a city. Giving us an insight into Chagani’s work, Kakar shares, “Noor is from Lahore but he grew up in Karachi where he saw how construction was done, the permanence of home, and the fragility that comes with it.”
Apart from this, Latitude 28, also showcases the works of a slew of South Asian artists—Ahalya Rajendran, Waswo X Waswo, Anupama Alias, Chadna Bez Baruah, Gopa Trivedi, Jyoti Bhatt, Shalina Vichitra, Yogesh Ramkrishna, Ketaki Sarpotdar, Shubham Kumar, Sudipta Das from India; Khadim Ali and Waseem Ahmed from Pakistan; Zahra Yazdani from Iran—who have responded to several socio-political realities.
Anand Niketan-based Blueprint 12 has set the stage for six artists—Kaimura and Mansha Chhatwal who is newly represented, and four others from its ongoing platform section, Tabeena Nisar Wani, Madhu Das, Aditi Anuj, and Koyal Raheja—who have explored a wide array of mediums including vintage paper and textiles, and exhibit multiplicity in the themes touched upon.
Jaipur-based artist Aditi Anuj’s paper works ‘An Ocean in a Drop’ and ‘Voyage-into the expanse’, particularly stand out—they are not just visually appealing but also thought-provoking given the intricate layers of folds used to put the work together. Throwing light on her practice, Anuj shared, “Like any other child, I too folded boats and planes to play with, blissfully oblivious of the fact that in the future, I would pursue a career in Origami. Years later, after a masters’ degree and years of experience working professionally with paper, I have come to understand that the element of play is far more important to develop yourself as an artist.”
Explore and learn
At Lado Sarai-based Exhibit 320, you get to explore the works of Gopi Gajwani, Gunjan Kumar, Harish Ojha, Kumaresan Selvaraj, Rahul Kumar, Sonali Sonam, Sumakshi Singh, Suryakanta Swain, and Yasmin Jahan Nupur. Despite several themes, issues, and mediums, the unanimous exploration of the concept of memory in their art ties these works together. Kumaresan Selvaraj uses layers of paper to show “how memories can be so fragile yet strong–the layers of paper shows that—and how subconscious mind often takes over our conscious thoughts,” shares curator Prakhar Chakradhar.
Talking about DCAW, Rasika Kajaria. Director, Exhibit 320, shared, “Housing all these galleries under one roof, this art event is for the city to get together and explore art and culture. With Delhi being so big and diverse, it is hard for people to go from gallery to gallery; so DCAW is like a cultural hub. We have diverse groups visiting—from architects to collectors, designers, and even students.”
Shefali Somani and Anahita Taneja—co-founders of Shrine Empire Gallery, Defence Colony—take forward South Asian narratives through their curation of works of Shruti Mahajan, Awdhesh Tamrakar, Divya Singh, Ratna Gupta, Lavkant Chaudhary, Tayeba Begum Lipi, Piyali Sadhukhan, Priyank Gothwal, Sangita Maity, and Samanta Batra Mehta. Each of these artists puts forward diverse ideas about community politics, urban migration, gender, and temporalities of time and space.
“We represent many artists from the South Asian region and showcase their work. We wanted to show the audience artists who work with different concepts and materiality. DCAW’s idea is to show contemporary [art], and most of these artists talk about present-day issues,” shared Somani.
Expressions from the homeland
The exploration of homegrown traditions and tales continues at New Friends Colony-based Gallery Espace’s curation. Here we get to view works by Amit Ambalal, Dilip Chobisa, GR Iranna, Ishita Chakraborty, Mekhala Bahl, Nandini Bagla Chirimar, Paula Sengupta, Rashmi Mala, Shambhavi, Tanmoy Samanta, Valay Gada. “Most of these works are very rooted in Indian aesthetics,” explains gallerist Renu Modi, as she talks about city-based painter and printmaker Shambhavi’s ‘Each Drop of Water is an Ocean’, a 2019 artwork that showcases various elements of the universe in five pots.
A series of hyper-chromatic works by Delhi’s Nidhi Agarwal is exhibited by Nature Morte, Dhanmill Compound. Featuring abstract shapes and forms, her works bring together distinct elements—good and evil, comical and sinister; such contrasting concepts seem to be merging together. The gallery is also hosting Aditya Pande's recent and old works.
Through 'Remember the Skin Whose Earth You Are', Defence colony-based Vadehra Art Gallery presents works by Atul Dodiya, Jagannath Panda, Anju Dodiya, Praneet Soi, Ranbir Kaleka, KM Madhusudhanan, Gigi Scaria, Sachin George Sebastian, Shailesh BR, Shrimanti Saha, Sujith SN, Pranati Panda, and Priyanka Choudhary. Together, the curation “emphasises the tonal saturations of the earth in various real and imagined landscapes as a language of complicated movements”.
A parallel exhibition titled 'Legal Alien'—it is curated by Meera Menezes—is also on display at the Old Building. With engrossing works as well as a series of interactive workshops, DCAW has triumphantly managed to create a platform where artists as well as art enthusiasts can catch a glimpse of some revolutionary works being made around us.