New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata: Shows to See
In the run-up to the twelfth edition of the India Art Fair, from 30 January to 2 February 2020, the makings and markers of the subcontinent are once again brought into focus, with a renewed understanding of the complexities and precarity of the contemporary moment. In an atmosphere where neutrality is next to impossible and sentimentality deepens, this Ocula Lowdown presents a list of exhibitions taking place across the country that resonate with anxiety, shifting socio-political identities, modes of individual and collective resistance, and explorations of temporality and place-making.
India Art Fair 2019: Exhibitions to See
India Art Fair runs from 31 January to 3 February 2019, with IAF Director Jagdip Jagpal highlighting the inclusion of talks, walk-throughs, screenings, live events, and performances, including Word and Hopes, Yasmin Jahan Nupur's six-hour performance that interrogates the boundaries between spectator and performer. A series of seven collector's masterclasses will also take place, with advice on buying at auction delivered by head of sales for South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art at Christie's, Nishad Avari, on 3 February. Supported by curator and researcher Sitara Chowfla, this edition will be more focused and better integrated with parallel exhibitions across the city. Here is a selection of shows to see in and around New Delhi during the fair.
Fashioning a South Asian drift: the 9th India Art Fair
Now in its ninth edition and its first year under the wing of co-owning art fair powerhouse MCH Group, the New Delhi-based India Art Fair opened on 2 February (running to 5 February) with a more focused South Asian directive. Moving on from its early days, when the fair appeared to position itself as an international event complete with invited gallery bigwigs, India Art Fair—billed as 'the largest contemporary art event in South Asia'—is on its way to finding its niche as a 'portal to the region's cultural landscape'. Gone are the spectacular installations and the art-world gimmickry that shadowed so many of the fair's former editions, allowing for a better structured and more meaningful focus on representing Indian art within a South Asian dimension.