Curatorial Note

All That Is Life

Lockdown after lockdown, all of last year and most of this year, we have been stuck within the confines of our four walls. Being home can be a creative journey and sometimes not. Home can become a studio but sometimes not. Relationships and life have become transient. Everyone has had their own unique experience of loneliness, acceptance and hope.

We will witness transformation and re-birth as we follow the artist’s internal journey through the pandemic. The new and the old. The known and the unknown. Claustrophobia and finally, freedom.

This show features 20 upcoming artists who have responded to this crisis and forged their way forward. I have selected specifically these artists because of the resilience they have shown over the years. I have followed their practices intimately to know this. Their work is a meditation on the uncertainty of the times we live in, and our very human, but futile attempts to hold on to experiences and memories.

Saloni Doshi Founder, Space118 Digbijayee Khatua

Zarrin Fatima Shamsi Room 1 Arvind Sundar

Anni Kumari Digbijayee Khatua

Digbijayee Khatua (b.1989/ Orissa/ India ) received a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Painting from BK College of Art and Crafts, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, 2012, and Master of Visual Arts in Painting from College of Art, New Delhi, 2015.

He has been the recipient of various awards and scholarships in his career and participated in many important residencies like Piramal Art Residency, Mumbai 2016; Kochi Muziris Biennale Post-Graduate Residency, Vagamo, 2015, and KHOJ Peers Residency, New Delhi, 2015. He has been awarded a gold medal by Prafulla Art Foundation, Mumbai 2018. He has recently participated in group shows with Anant Art, Malhar: A lyrical exposition, 2020 and Telling Tales: A Journey into Narrative Forms 2020, Revisiting the Urban, 2018 at Bikaner House, New Delhi. He has also participated in India Art Fair, New Delhi 2019,, 2020; Shrishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad, 2019; Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai 2019; MOMus Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2019; 56th, 57th, 58th National Exhibition of Art, 2015, 2016, 2017 at Lalit Kala Akademi; Indo-Korean Young Artist Exhibition, Seoul, Korea, 2016; Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2016 and the Students’ Biennale, Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2014-2015.

Digbijayee’s artworks reflect contemporary landscapes that have been marked by rapid urbanization, power-lust, ecological instability, and the declining mental health of city dwellers.

Digbijayee lives and works in New Delhi, India. Digbijayee Khatua | Life During War Watercolor On Paper 23 x 47 Inches 2020 Digbijayee Khatua | Day After Day Watercolor On Paper 23 x 47 Inches 2020 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi

Zarrin-Fatima Shamsi (b.1994/ Vadodara/ Gujarat/ India) is an artist, printmaker, and art educator. She holds a Master’s Degree in Graphic Arts and a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India.

Zarrin has participated in several group shows and workshops in India as well as abroad. She has recieved an Award from Bombay Art Society for Best Painting under Student Category, Mumbai in 2016, The online Affect Art Competition under the category of New Media, India in 2020, Special Jury Award for the Best Artist by Golden Brush Awards, 2021, Manorama Young Printmaker Award 2020 and she has been given an honorable mention for Printmaking in the Inception Grant, 2021.

More recently she was part of the Judges Panel for Interior Perspectives and Rendering Critique presentation at Box Hill College, Kuwait and she was also interviewed by Khaleejesque magazine for their Issue no. 40 for her Experiments with Print. She has worked at Kuwait University as a Teaching Assistant for Printmaking.

Her works mainly features natural objects, and an attempt to express her emotions and memories attached to these. One might say that her visual language and approach towards painting and print-making are organic and sensitive, though her work has always been experimental, and she tries to achieve something new each time, with each work. She explores printmaking in more depth through her work.

Zarrin-Fatima lives and works in Kuwait. Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- I Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 2 Cyanotype printing on paper Cyanotype printing on paper 16 x 21 Inches 16 x 21 Inches 2021 2021 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 3 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 4 Cyanotype printing on paper Cyanotype printing on paper 21 x 16 Inches 21 x 16 Inches 2021 2021 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 5 Cyanotype printing on paper 16 x 21 Inches 2021 Arvind Sundar

Arvind Sundar, (b.1993/ Coimbatore/ India) attained his Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2018.

He has had a solo show at 840 Gallery, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio in 2017-18. He has also been a part of several groups shows at Benton House, Chicago, Illinois, 2016, Waiting Room Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2016, Carnegie Art Center, Covington, Kentucky, 2017, Myers and Reed Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2017, Wavepool Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2017, Anytime Department Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2017, Thunder-sky Inc Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2018 among several others. He has received a distinguished Merit Scholarship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2015, University Grant Scholarship at the University of Cincinnati, 2016, the Wolfstein Fellowship, 2017, an award at the Avon Duct Tape Festival, Ohio, 2017 amongst many other medals and awards.

Arvind’s work navigates the geometry of the grid by contesting its apparent neutrality. He employs the materiality of paint and screen printing, and engages the grid as a performative site. Through push-pull negotiations between drawn lines and color-fields, Arvind undoes the notion of the picture plane, offering renewed indexes of spatial reference. The word Tantra means both “union of forms” and “system”. These drawings are systems created using lines and forms. The collaged cut paper acts as pockets of colour fields providing contrast. The lines act as a conduit that connects those small pockets. Circuit boards and maps were the primary inspirations for these drawings.

Arvind lives and works in Chennai, India Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 5 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 4 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 7 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 11 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 13 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 14 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 17 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 18 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Anni Kumari

Anni Kumari (b.1983/ Jamshedpur/ Jharkhand/ India) studied B.A Hons. in Political Science at Miranda House, Delhi University and pursued a B.F.A and M.F.A in Painting from the College of Art, Delhi in 2013. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group shows in India, including Algorithms at Anant Art +Apparao Galleries, 2021, Spiralling into the absurd, Anant Art Gallery, 2021, Shifting Positions, India Art Fair, Art District XIII,2020, Mirrored Questions, Art District XIII, 2019,Again & yet again, OED Gallery, Kochi, 2017.

Additionally, she is a visiting professor at Ashoka University and has been a grantee at Artreach India, Lalit Kala Akademi, Sahapedia-UNESCO, Ministry of Culture, GOI, and the University Grants Commission. She has been an artist- in-residence at the Piramal Art Foundation, Thane, Maharashtra, 2016.

Anni uses repetitive pattern making, to explore the complexities of contemporary human relationships and their constant transmutation. In her works, rhythmic patterns based on mathematical algorithms, ideas, and concepts like the Prime Numbers and the Fibonacci series, become symbols of complex interdependent structures and passages. By reclaiming her practice as a craft, she critiques the distinction between what is regarded as high art and craft, and the way value is ascribed to labour.

Anni Kumari lives and works in Delhi, India. Anni Kumari | Intersections Spray Paints, Photo Transfer, Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 36 Inches diameter 2021 Anni Kumari | Some equations have multiple identities-VI Anni Kumari | Some equations have multiple identities-VIII Acrylic On Canvas Acrylic On Canvas 48 x 36 Inches 48 x 36 Inches 2021 2021 Anni Kumari | Convergence-1 , 2, 3 Acrylic, Oil On Canvas 12 Inches diameter 2021 Subir Hati

Charmi Gada Shah Room 2 Vikrant Bhise

Sharbendu De Subir Hati

Subir Hati (1970./ Kolkata/ West Bengal/India) received his B.F.A from Govt. College of Art, Department Of Sculpture, Kolkata, West Bengal in 1996 and M.F.A from Banaras Hindu University, Department Of Sculpture, Banaras, U.P. in 2004.

He has been part of many group shows like Memories Arrested in Space, Akara Art Mumbai 2021, A Walk Across Grids, Akara Art, Mumbai, 2020, India Art Summit, Delhi, Gallery Art District 13, 2020, India Art Summit, Delhi, Gallery Art District 13, 2019, Steel Sculpture Project with Jindal Steel, Artdinox, 2018, Visvaroopa – Curated by Johny ML. , Fly Ash- The Phoenix Redefined, Art District 13, New Delhi, 2017, MIRROR IMAGE – Curated by Prof. Sunanda K Sanyal, Prof. Of Art History and; Critical Studies, The Art Institute Of Boston At Wellesley University, Massachusetts, USA, Society Of Contemporary Artist Gallery, Kolkata, 2011, Birla Academy Of Art and Culture, 2018, India Art Summit, Delhi, Gallery Art District 13, 2018, Quest Of Mind – Curated by Veer Munshi, Neuhaus Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2015, UTTAR-PURBA curated by Dr.Archana Roy, Emami Chisel Art Gallery, Kolkata, 2011. He is the winner of the GLENFIDDICH Residency Program. 2016 in Scotland and has attended the Maihar Residency in Madhya Pradesh, 2011,

Growing up, he used to accompany his goldsmith father from the workshop to now-extinct theatre shows, classical recitals and the weekly visit to the racecourse. These childhood activities helped him to develop a composite tool to confront this constant state of uncertainty. Subir is a passionate observer of this eternal game of life. Out of the confusion, emerges confidence. Form changes, develops into other forms, from one shape to many shapes. As the context of the communication changes, the shapes and forms do too. For example, a lampshade or furniture or water container, which has been there for ages, has changed its shape over time. Though their utility remains the same, multi-contextual impacts of the cultural and socio-political influence of time have changed their form.These ever-changing forms give birth to new design. Subir’s works, varying from two-dimensional to three-dimensional art forms, are an attempt to address these changing contexts and patterns/designs of the time. Subir explores architecture, jewelry making, furniture, and textiles with great interest to design his own works with authority and tries to strike a balance between traditional and modern ways of living for survival.

Subir lives and works in Delhi and Kolkata, India. Subir Hati | Is it not a fine urban look of earth ! Gold plated metal fixed on coloured wooden frame 8 x 8 x 2.5 Inches each - 10 Pieces 2021 Subir Hati | Is it not a fine urban look of earth ! Gold plated metal fixed on coloured wooden frame 8 x 8 x 2.5 Inches each - 10 Pieces 2021 Charmi Gada Shah

Charmi Gada Shah (b.1980/ Mumbai/, India) holds a Masters degree in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art, London in 2004 and a B.F.A from the L.S Raheja School of Art in 2002. Charmi’s first solo show was at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2013. She has exhibited at various venues including the Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2011, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2011; Prague Biennale 5, 2011; Art Gwangju, Korea, 2010. Her other shows include Aesthetic Bind curated by Geeta Kapoor; Relative Visa by Bose Krishnamachari; Midnights Grandchildren curated by Girish Shahane; Off the Record: Mediations on the Photographic Image curated by Vidya Shivadas; Ideas Travel faster than light curated by Jason Miranda Bilbao and The construction of Loss curated by Himali Singh Soin.

She has won the FICA Emerging artist award, 2011, the Promising Artist award by Art India & India Habitat Centre in 2009, and has a large-scale work installed at T2 Mumbai international airport by GVK.

Charmi’s practice engages with the passage of time and the subsequent shifts that have occurred in the meaning and function of architecture. She often works with built spaces that are abandoned, neglected or in a state of disuse. By revisiting them, and building or innovating on their outlines, Charmi often draws attention back to these spaces and their disjuncture in time and space. Employing different media, including drawing, sculpture, photography, film and architecture, she formulates a network of correlations that play on notions of memory, destruction and conservation. The installations become repositories of documentation, fiction and mimesis.

Charmi lives and works in Mumbai, India Charmi Gada Shah | Mirage Mirror, Archival Prints, Wood 60 x 72 x 1.5 Inches - 4 pieces together 2019 Charmi Gada Shah | Pole Salvaged Wood Fascia 120 x 12 x 12 Inches Detail 2019 Vikrant Bhise

Vikrant Bhise (b.1984/ Mumbai/ Maharashtra/ India) graduated from the J.J. School of Art, Mumbai in 2011. His works have been exhibited in solo and group shows at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2019, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai 2017, 9 Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai 2016, CIMA Awards, Kolkata 2018, etc. Additionally, Vikrant has received many state and national awards in India, like the All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society Award, New Delhi 2018, The Indian Academy of Fine Arts Silver Award, Amritsar 2018, Art Society of India Award, Mumbai 2017, The Maharashtra State Art Award 2016, Lalit Kala Academy National Award, 2018, and the Bombay Art Society Gold Medal, 2018.

After completing his degree, Vikrant delved even more into his studio practice, which was inspired by everyday life around him. Struggles of the common man, racism, communalism and changes in the attitudes of the society are some of the themes that appear throughout his work.

Vikrants expressions on paper or canvas are like his daily diary. It is this response to the increasing violence in society and an unhealthy sense of competitiveness that has permeated into society today, and as a result of which man is forgetting his own human values. People are becoming increasingly insensitive to the increase in violence, morbidity, and ethnic strife. He combines these stark and often sensitive subjects with a contemporary Indian aesthetic, and innovative media experiments such as paper cutting and collages.

Vikrant lives and works in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Vikrant Bhise | IMPRESSION 3 Mixed Media on Paper 24 x 41 Inches 2019 Vikrant Bhise | Wisdom Mixed Media on Canvas 48 x 144 Inches 2019 Vikrant Bhise | Belief Mixed Media on Paper 11.5 x 11.5 Inches Each 2019 Sharbendu De

Sharbendu De (b. 1978/ Kolkata/ West Bengal) grew up in the Andaman Islands, is a lens-based artist, academic and a writer. He studied photography at the University of Westminster, London and presently teaches photography and visual arts at several universities and cultural institutions in India. He has worked in seven natural disasters including the Asian Tsunami (2004) and the Nepal earthquake (2015), where he produced “Between Grief and Nothing” (2015-16) using a Nepali anthropomorphic form Lakhey to symbolise trauma as an aftermath of disasters. In 2020, Sharbendu was awarded a grant from KHOJ under their Air Toxicities project and from the MurthyNAYAK Foundation, to complete the series “An Elegy for Ecology,” a futuristic piece about human survival in a post-climate catastrophic world. It premiers at the Asian Art Biennial 2021 “Phantasmopolis” in Taiwan. In 2019, he started working on his next constructed series, “Man is Not an Island”. In 2018, Feature Shoot recognised him as an Emerging Photographer of the Year. He was also shortlisted for LensCulture Visual Storytelling Awards, 2019, and Lucie Foundation’s Emerging Artist of the Year Scholarship, 2018, among a host of other nominations.

Straddling between the documentary and conceptual approaches to storytelling, Sharbendu seeks answers in nature, the subconscious, dreams and symbolism, in pursuit of finding a new idiom. For his seven-year-long engagement with the indigenous Lisu tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India, to create Imagined Homeland, 2013-19, he received grants from the Prince Claus Fund & ASEF,2019, Lucie Foundation, 2018 and India Foundation for the Arts, 2017. The indigenous Tibeto-Burman Lisu community lives inside and around the intractable jungles of Namdapha on the Indo-Myanmar border of Changlang district, Arunachal Pradesh, India. It takes them three-six days on foot to reach the nearest town Miao trekking 120-157 km each way. Despite the adversities, they cohabit symbiotically with nature revelling in its mysteries. Made over seven long years, Imagined Homeland evokes a sensorial experience of their world and their continuous quest for a ‘better’ world — the same quest that binds the human race together within the context of our own dreams, tribulations and aspirations. It further counters the ever existing colonial gaze. During these years, he lived with them for months, cut-off from the rest of the world including family and friends, without phone, internet, electricity, television or healthcare — living amongst them their way. Life was hard. It was no longer romantic to live in the wild. And yet it was.

Sharbendu lives and works in New Delhi, India. Sharbendu De | Three Tea Cups, Father and the Child, Imagined Homeland Archival Print on Hahnemuele Photo Rag Bright White - Edition 2/7 + 2 AP 34.5 x 52 Inches 2018 Pranay D Room 3 Siddhartha Kararwal

Sunhil Sippy Pranay Dutta

Pranay Dutta’s (b.1993/ Kolkata/ India) has a B.V.A and M.V.A in Painting from M.S.U, Baroda. He has been a part of various group shows such as Horizon against Nature, Gallery OED, 2016; Turn of the tide, Khoj International Artists Association, Delhi, 201 Building Bridges, Emergent Art Space, USA, Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore, 2018; Within|without, Asia House, London, UK, 2018; Art Asia, Goyang, South Korea, 2018; India Art Fair, Delhi, 2019; Geometries of Desire and Decay, Authority of Small Objects, Delhi, 2019; Delhi Contemporary Artweek, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, 2019; Look, Stranger, Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, 2019 and Thinking Matter, Space Studio, Vadodara, Gujarat, 2020.

He has received the INLAKS Fine Art Award in 2019, FICA x MMF Emerging Artist award, Extended Support Platform as well as a grant from Five Million Incidents, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan in 2020. He has been a resident artist at KHOJ International Workshop, Goa in 2017 and KHOJ Peers Share in 2019.

Pranay's practice examines the complex relationship between terrestrial species and landscapes; drawing from the tension between our exploitative, extractive processes, and the fictions of care, mutation, survival, regeneration, and ‘hope’. Through painting, video, computer-generated imagery and video sculptures, he strives to evoke a sense of crumbling. Pranay invites viewers to become explorers or witnesses of unpredictable and isolating future microcosms. These are presented as immersive simulations where a collision between our collective futures, the past, and alternate versions of our present occur.

Pranay lives and works in Kolkata, India. Pranay Dutta | Beneath the steel sky 1 Acrylic On Photographic Vinyl Sheet 53 x 71.5 Inches 2018 Pranay Dutta | Untitled 1 Acrylic On Photographic Vinyl Sheet 59.5 x 44.5 Inches 2020 Siddhartha Kararwal

Siddhartha Kararwal (b.1984/ New Delhi /India) completed his MVA and BVA in the discipline of Sculpture from M.S.U, Baroda in 2009 and 2006 respectively. He had a solo show, Paper Tiger and Other Tales with Diesel + Art in collaboration with Latitude 28 in Mumbai, 2012 and he was represented by Latitude 28 at Art: Gwangju:12, India Art Summit 2011, India Art Collective 2011, and Art Expo 2009. He was showcased at the Sculpture Park at India Art Fair ,2012 curated by Diana Campbell – Creative India, as well as the Special Projects Space at India Art Fair, 2013.

He has participated in various group exhibitions including Glitch Frame Lollipop, Latitude 28, 2012; The Matter Within New Contemporary Art of India at the Yerba Buena Centre of Arts in San Francisco 2011; Beauty and the Beast at Mathieu Foss Gallery in Mumbai 2011; To Be Continued…, the FICA group show at Volte Gallery, Mumbai 2011; Demould at the Fine Arts Faculty, Baroda 2011; Two Positions, Part II at Seven Art Gallery in New Delhi 2011’; Urban Testimonies and ‘Size Matters…Or Does It?’ at Latitude 28, New Delhi in 2010; Scratch by Sakshi Gallery at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 2010 as well as First Look at Project 88, Mumbai 2009, and Harvest ,2010 at Arushi Art, New Delhi.

His residencies include the Bangalore Artist Residency funded by India Foundation of Art Bangalore 2010, Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi,2009, He is the recipient of the Best Display award, M.S.U., Baroda 2009, FICA Art Award runners up in 2010 and was part of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2012.

Siddhartha’s hybridized paradoxical, satirical, witty and surprisingly unexpected almost surreal works are a probe into the existential dualities of the current multiplex cultural fabric. They are explorations of time, a whimsical take on the current world. Siddhartha transforms everyday stories and mundane objects into absurd narratives that challenge the viewer to think. His current artworks respond to our collective post covid reality. Like the silver lining on a cloud, the darkness of the world around us yields this fluorescent lens to see it through. These artworks are a final salute to these twilight times and a nudge to the viewer to find their nook of fantasy through which we make sense of this reality.

Siddhartha lives and works in Jaipur, India. Siddhartha Kararwal | LA LA LAND Siddhartha Kararwal | TIME-OUT Dry Pastels on Acid Free Paper Dry Pastels on Acid Free Paper 60 x 48 Inches 60 x 40 Inches 2020 2021 Sunhil Sippy

Sunhil Sippy (b.1971/ London, United Kingdom) has spent his formative years growing up in North London suburbia and attending a local prep school before going on to study at Harrow School. At 17, before committing to University at Georgetown where he received a degree in English Literature in 1994, he wandered across the country living in California for a year, briefly attending photography school. In 1995, he arrived in Bombay intending to build a career in the world of film and advertising. He had always been inspired by the world of television commercials, viewing them as a form of visual art patronized by many of the world’s most innovative companies. The barriers to entry were high, and realizing that winning a gig in a pre-cellphone era when 35mm film was still whirring through the cameras, was going to be tough. Sunhil embarked on a tumultuous ride making his first feature film in 1999 called Snip! which was released in late 2000 and subsequently won the coveted National Award for Best Editing in 2001. It proved to be a worthy calling card and thereafter he entered the world of commercials. A major accident involving a heel injury, proved to be a turning point in his life, and one that introduced him to the world of street photography. It was meditative walks through the city of Bombay that healed both his spirit and his foot.

Unwittingly, his commercial work proved to be the opposite in spirit to the journey he began to take in photography. He specializes in the high gloss world of beauty in advertising, riveted by the magical process of making hair shine and skin glow, though once in a while he is allowed to express his rather subtle sense of humor in narrative projects. Over ten years, he has captured life on the streets of a city that he never believed would evolve and change as much as it has. These images are from The Opium of Time, a 224-page photo book which is his collection of work that is a romantic celebration of a city whose robust spirit is camouflaged by a delicate and vulnerable veneer.

Sunhil lives and works in Mumbai, India Sunhil Sippy | Collection 1 : The Opium Of Time 1 Hahnemuhle Archival Paper 24 x 36 Inches 2020 Edition of 5 Sunhil Sippy | Collection 1 : The Opium Of Time 2 Hahnemuhle Archival Paper 24 x 36 Inches 2020 Edition of 10 Sunhil Sippy | Collection 1 : The Opium Of Time 3 Hahnemuhle Archival Paper 17 x 25 Inches 2020 Edition of 10 Sunhil Sippy | Collection 2 : Varanasi 1 Hahnemuhle Archival Paper 17 x 25 Inches 2020 Edition of 10 Ekta Singha

Priti Vadakkath Room 4 Pavan Kavitkar

Ahalya Raj Ekta Singha

Ekta Singha (b.1991/ Kolkata /India) graduated with an M.V. A in Painting in 2015 from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U, Baroda, India and a B.V.A in Painting in 2012 from Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata.

She presented her solo at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad in 2019, Kala Chaupal and is currently having one at Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2021. She has exhibited in group shows at the India Art Fair, New Delhi, Gallery ARK, Vadodara, Anant Art Gallery in collaboration with Apparao Art Gallery, New Delhi, Bikaner House, New Delhi, Gallery 88, Kolkata, Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad. Akara Art Gallery, Mumbai. India Art Fair, Art Centrix Space Gallery, New Delhi. She is the co-founder of Young Art Support Platform on Instagram, which supports young talent from across the country.

She has been a part of several residencies like the Usha Foundation, Bhubaneshwar, Odhisha, Kalakriti Art Residency, Hyderabad, ART ICHOL, Maihar, Madhya Pradesh and the 58th National Art Exhibition art conclave camp, Lalit Kala Academy, Bangalore. She has received various awards including the FICA Emerging Artist Award 2020, an Award by the 50th Annual Exhibition of Birla Academy of Art and Craft, Kolkata; Bombay Art Society, Award; Atul Bose Memorial Award for Best Painting and the Gopal Ghosh Memorial Scholarship, Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata, India.

The crux of Ekta’s work lies in her personal interpretation of layers of experiences woven with design motifs, forms, and elements derived from miniature paintings. Her interest in Mughal, Persian, and Rajput miniature paintings has inspired her to generate a language of her own which is layered with metaphorical and personal references. The miniature visual elements create a pictorial surface and the scroll format, an expansive terrain like the Pata paintings, which instills a sense of movement. Memories of her royal ancestral home and lineage in Bangladesh feature extensively in her work. Stories like fairy tales from a forgotten generation blend with her own life experiences to build a unique narration. The act of migrating from one’s native place and forging a new identity brings out the attachments we have with not only people but also with places and objects. The old photographs she incorporates, not only documents history and family chronology but also serves as a visual tool that subtly transforms disturbing events and memories through their consistent appearance. Manipulation of various mediums, forms and patterns creates an expansive, layered terrain that constructs each other’s existence and eventually creates a new image altogether.

Ekta lives and works in Vadodara, India. Ekta Singha | And All That Left Behind Watercolour, Gouache, Graphite, Nepali Handmade Paper On Linen Cotton 49 x 24 Inches 2019 Ekta Singha | Excavating Roots – I Ekta Singha | Blue Letter – II Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite, Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite, Nepali Handmade Paper On Linen Cotton Nepali Handmade Paper On Linen Cotton 60 x 36 Inches 54 x 18 Inches 2018 2018 Ekta Singha | Joint Family - II, Pigment, Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite, Nepali Handmade Paper On Linen Cotton 28 x 37 Inches 2018 Ekta Singha | Memories Slipping Through Fragile Hands of Time Gouache, Water Colour, Graphite and Nepali Handmade Paper Pasted on Linen Cloth 41 x 26 Inches 2019 Priti Vadakkath

Priti Vadakkath (b. 1971/ Fort Kochi/ India) completed her Bachelor's in History of Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai, 1992 followed by a Diploma in Accessory Design, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi,1995.

Priti worked in the jewelry design space till 2006 after which she transitioned back to her creative art practice. She has had solo shows at Kashi Art Gallery, Fort Kochi, and The Viewing Room, Mumbai. Her works have been exhibited in group shows at Alleppey, India curated by Bose Krishnamachari; Riga, Latvia curated by Shaheen Merali; Birla Art Foundation Kolkata curated by Johny M.L; Gallery Beyond, Mumbai; Shrine Empire Gallery, New Delhi; India Art Fair, New Delhi; Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore; Exhibit 320, New Delhi; Scions Installations, Los Angeles, USA curated by Niyatee Shinde; PAC Gallery, Cincinnati, USA curated by Meena Vari; 1x1 Gallery, Dubai; Asia Top Gallery Hotel Art Fair, Seoul, S. Korea; F2 Gallery Beijing, China curated by Vida Heydari. Her works are in private collections and museums in India and abroad. She was the winner of the De Beers Indian Jewellery Design Award 1996.

Priti’s practice is informed by her experiences of being a mother and primary caregiver to a 19-year-old with Autism Spectrum Disorder. It also reflects her belief in primacy of nature to our existence and the importance of conserving it. Plants bring equilibrium to any biota. Left to themselves, they create an ecological system that advances harmony and coexistence, bringing resilience within a structure that today is seeing increasing metabolic rifts and rupture. This series is part of an ongoing study, an outcome of her experiments on a category of flora called epiphytes- plants that grow on other plants or trees using the host only for support. The exquisite nature of this relationship, with its non-parasitic cohabitation and it's parallels in human relationships, is of deep interest to her.

The artist lives and works in Munnar and in Kochi, Kerala, India. Priti Vadakkath | Conservatory - 8 Watercolour on Archival Paper 60 x 36 Inches 2021 Detail Priti Vadakkath | Conservatory - 9 Watercolour on Archival Paper 60 x 36 Inches 2021 Detail Pavan Kavitkar

Pavan Kavitkar (b. 1990/ Amravati/ Maharashtra/ India) graduated with a B.F.A from Sir. J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, 2014 and an M.F.A from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, Bolpur, West Benga, 2016l.

His works have been exhibited in group shows at the Gurugram, Haryana, Art Pilgrim Gallery, CIMA Awards Show, Kolkata, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai. Additionally, he has taught as a Guest faculty at the College of Fine Art at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore for two years.He has received the 2021 Golden Brush Award - Artild Gallery, Bangalore, 2021 All India Merit Grant for Lockdown Art from Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation, Mumbai, 2020 Khoj Support Grant, 2017-18, Lalitkala Research scholarship at Chennai Regional Centre by Government of India, 2016-17, Ila Panda Centre for Art Scholarship, and IPCA Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.

Pavan’s work explores the surrounding spaces which matter to him personally and socially. He says it gives him questions regarding the social and political context of the space based on the experiences of his surroundings. Pavan’s practice has moved from one city to another, and his works have thus evolved. His work mostly focuses on urban surroundings which transform the psycho-physical space within a social and political context. He explores the similar and contrasting relationship of nature and humans for example the migration of birds and humans towards cities and its adverse effects on both. His work also speaks about cutting down the trees and building up cities for human comfort. Representationally, he likes to play with architectural structures and a minimal, simplified visual approach. His recent work revolves around the pandemic. He mostly works with watercolor, oil colour, gouache, and photography.

Pavan lives and works in Nashik,Maharashtra, India. Pavan Kavitkar | Desire in 2020 Watercolour, Gouache On Paper 12 x 18 Inches 2021 Pavan Kavitkar | Do We Need Perfection? Triptych Watercolour On Paper 15 x 12 Inches - each 2020 Pavan Kavitkar | Home Quarantine-2 Watercolour, Gouache On Paper 30 x 24 Inches 2020 Pavan Kavitkar | Zimmedari Pavan Kavitkar | Khwahishen Watercolour, Gouache On Paper Watercolour, Gouache On Paper 30 x 22 Inches 30 x 22 Inches 2021 2021 Ahalya Raj

Ahalya Raj (b.1997/ Punalur/ Kollam/ Kerala/ India) graduated with a B.F.A in Painting from the Govt. College of Fine Arts in Thrissur, Kerala and a M.V.A in Painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. She has exhibited in several group exhibitions like Lokame Tharavadu - The world is one family curated by Bose Krishnamachari, 2021, The International Kalamela group exhibition, New Delhi, 2018, The Kerala State Exhibition, Darbar Hall, Ernakulam, Kerala, 2021, Art India Company, Himachal Pradesh, 2020 and ENCORE Final Display at Govt. College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, Kerala, 2019 and the Kochi Muziris Students Biennale in 2018 & 2021. She has participated in the Sakti Women’s art camp and the Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship display show, MSU Fine Arts, Baroda, 2019. The central characters in Ahalya's artworks are usually those close to her - family, friends and even her pets. She is heavily inspired by the agrarian life she is surrounded by. Drawing is a key facet of all her work and whenever she comes across characters that intrigue her, they manage to find a home in her paintings. Ahalya is a keen observer of the reality around her- animate and inanimate. Often, the objects around her, take her back to childhood memories and her work becomes an amalgamation of her own childhood and the new generation’s narrative. Her work is never purely depictive. She is more interested in creating a new premise through her narratives, so the joy and wonder in her work is constant. Ahalya lives and works in Kerala, India. Ahalya Raj | From the Garden, Ahalya Raj | The Floaters Acrylic, Charcoal on Wasli Paper Acrylic, Charcoal on Wasli Paper 25.6 X 21.6 Inches 25.6 x 33.5 Inches 2021 2021 Ahalya Raj | Untitled 1 Ahalya Raj | Untitled 2 Acrylic & Charcoal on Wasli Paper Acrylic & Charcoal on Paper 25.6 x 33.4 Inches 9.4 x 10.4 Inches 2021 2021 Ahalya Raj | Untitled 3 Ahalya Raj | Untitled 4 Acrylic & Charcoal on Paper Acrylic & Charcoal on Paper 9.4 x 10.4 Inches 9.4 x 10.4 Inches 2021 2021 Ahalya Raj | Untitled 5 Ahalya Raj | Untitled 6 Acrylic & Charcoal on Paper Acrylic & Charcoal on Wasli Paper 10.4 x 9.4 Inches 12 x 12 Inches 2021 2021 Ahalya Raj | Untitled 7 Ahalya Raj | In the Morning Acrylic & Charcoal on Wasli Paper Acrylic & Charcoal on Paper 12 x 12 Inches 15 x 12 Inches 2021 2021 Sheena Bajaria

Riddhi Patel

Room 5 Meghana Gavireddygari

Sakshi Doshi

Diptej Vernekar Sheena Bajaria

Sheena Bajaria (b.1993 / Vadodara/Gujarat /India) completed her B.F.A from Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore, 2017.

Her works have been exhibited in a solo show at Cultivate Art Global Online Exhibition, 2021, NYC Phoenix Art Invitational Online Exhibition, 2019, and group shows at the Ballads of Baroda: The journey of 9 young artists at Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai, India, Open Circuits- The Lasalle Show, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, 2017 and Neither Glimmer Nor Ghost, Praxis Gallery, Singapore, 2017.

Sheena’s paintings are a platform to exercise her imagination where it becomes a mode of inhabiting space. The primitive marks on the canvas provide clues to her interpersonal relationship with the world around her. It mimics how her body not only occupies space in an immediate physical reality but also how it projects and manifests an illusion of space around it. As an abstract painter, her interpretations stem from the intrinsic nature of how the painting is made. In its making, she recognizes unique meanings that transform her perception of space and time. This is her way to introspect the phenomenological process of perception and painting. The metaphysical approach to her art leads to questioning beyond our physical reality. Her latest work attempts to reflect this inquiry by creating a combination of energetic controversy and intrigue on the canvas. The spontaneous action and gestural approach is an effort at a rudimentary, primordial, and elementary expression.

Sheena lives and works in Vadodara, India. Sheena Bajaria | Cybernating Terrestrial Acrylic On Canvas 56 x 76 Inches 2020 Sheena Bajaria | Melancholic Ecstasy Acrylic On Canvas 59 x 83 Inches 2021 Sheena Bajaria | Prospect Acrylic on Canvas 59 x 83 Inches 2020 Sheena Bajaria | Winter Mood Acrylic on Canvas 48 x 48 Inches 2019 Sheena Bajaria | Utitled N Acrylic on Canvas 60 x 84 Inches 2021 Sheena Bajaria | Ephemeral Acrylic on Canvas 60 x 84 Inches 2019 Riddhi Patel

Riddhi Patel (b.1997/Vadodara/Gujarat/India) received her B.F.A in Painting from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 2020 and is now pursuing her M.F.A, Painting on scholarship at the University of Alberta, Canada

She has exhibited virtually in the covid era at the Living with Arts Online art gallery ,2020; Toula Gallery, USA 2020; Kala Chapaula Trust – The Situation Room, 2020, Artbuzz studios, New Delhi 2020, Kochi Muziris Students Biennale 2021 and Round Lemon Zest Hall, UK 2021. Riddhi has also been an artist in residence at the St. Petersburg Art Residency, Russia 2020 - virtually and Space Studio, Baroda 2021.

Riddhi's oeuvre explores concepts of the infinite and the ephemeral. The lines represent a variety of things, including personal experiences, internal energy, and awareness. As a classical dancer, she believes that her line repetition is analogous to the recurrence of sounds or beats, which remains constant in rhythm but changes in temperament. She attempts to create a sense of silence, stillness, and transience with these strokes. Transcendence and Immanence are two values she aspires to acquire further. She strives to grasp the purity of form in order to produce an inexplicable heightened experience.

Riddhi lives and works in Alberta, Canada Riddhi Patel | Curtain-I Ink and Watercolour On Paper 19.5 x 20.5 Inches 2019 Riddhi Patel | Untitled- I Ink and Charcoal On Canvas Fabric 40 x 28 Inches 2018 Riddhi Patel | Walls in Monsoon Charcoal and Ink On Canvas Fabric 27 x 21 Inches 2018 Riddhi Patel | Untitled- II Watercolour On Paper 14 x 32 Inches 2019 Meghana Gavireddygari

Meghana Gavireddygari (b. 1996/ Anantapur/Andhra Pradesh/India) received her Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and International Relations, Boston University and her M.F. A in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, USA, 2020. Meghana has exhibited at the MICA Grad Show IV, Baltimore, USA, 2020; [email protected] at Sheila & Richard Riggs Gallery, Baltimore, USA, 2019; Timonium None of Us Like Each Other at Sheila & Richard Riggs Gallery, Baltimore, USA, 2018 and Emerging Artists Exhibition at the Telangana Tourism Corporation, Hyderabad, 2018. She has also participated in the 11th and 12th Sketchbook Annual in Baltimore, USA, 2018 & 2019. Meghana is a recipient of the Mount Royal Emerging Artist Award, 2020.

Meghana is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes materials like metal, wood, cement, and clay. She explores the subject of territory, censorship, and colonization, amongst other themes in the larger spectrum of Indian politics and sociology. Most recently, she is exploring the political implications and connotations of Indian materials such as textiles, spices, and tea.

Meghana lives and works in Hyderabad, India. Meghana Gavireddygari | De Facto I Meghana Gavireddygari | De Facto II Ink, Graphite, Tea On Paper Ink, Graphite, Tea On Paper 30 x 22 Inches 30 x 22 Inches 2021 2021 Meghana Gavireddygari | De Facto III Meghana Gavireddygari| | Letter (WW1) Graphite, Tea On Paper Banaras Silk and Gold Leaf On Fabric 30 x 22 inches 50 x 40 inches 2021 2020 Sakshi Doshi

Sakshi Doshi (b.1998/ Baroda/ India) graduated with a B.F.A from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat, India, 2020 and is currently pursuing her M.F.A at Boston University.

Her works have been featured on various online platforms. Moreover, she has been part of a virtual group shows at the Hyderabad Literature Festival, Hyderabad 2021, Virtual Printmaking exhibition of Etching prints by Printmakers.16, Kolkata, 2020. Additionally, she has recently been a resident at the Space Studios in Baroda.

Sakshi’s current curiosity lies in exploring a rhythm between positive and negative space by challenging the perception of the ordinary. She mainly uses mixed media in her practice - emulsion, gesso, photographs, cyanotype prints, graphite, and discarded register pages. Her core interest lies in the investigation of her surrounding visuals.

Sakshi lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Sakshi Doshi | Summer shapes I Sakshi Doshi | Summer shapes II Emulsion, Gesso, Poster Color On Hand Paper Emulsion, Gesso, Poster Color On Hand Paper 14.5 × 10.5 Inches 14.5 × 10.5 Inches 2021 2021 Sakshi Doshi | Summer shapes III Sakshi Doshi |Summer shapes IV Emulsion, Gesso, Poster Color On Hand Paper Emulsion, Gesso, Poster Color On Hand Paper 11 x 8.5 Inches 11 x 8.5 Inches 2021 2021 Sakshi Doshi | Flyover Area Variation I Mixed Media on Khaki Paper 19 x 15.5 Inches 2020 Sakshi Doshi | Atlantis Complex Study I Cyanotype Prints, Graphite on Watercolour Paper 18 x 11 Inches Detail 2020 Diptej Vernekar

Diptej Vernekar (b. 1991/ Goa/ India) received an M.F.A from S. N. School of Arts and Communication Dept. of Fine Arts, University of Hyderabad, India. His works have been exhibited in group shows at the Collateral Project for Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2016, Serendipity Arts Festival Goa 2017, India Art Fair 2019, LATITUDE 28, New Delhi, India. 2021. Additionally, he has taught at the S.N.School of Arts and Communication, Dept. of Fine Arts, University of Hyderabad, India. He has participated in the Khoj International Artist Workshop, Goa, 2017, and has won the Inlaks Fine Art Award by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, India. and Forbes 30Under30, Forbes India, 2019. Diptej’s work explores the fragility of the human condition. His stories translate into mystical or abstract charcoal drawings, since they can never be recalled in their entirety. He uses fragments that unite in altered forms through errors and smudges that result from the organic process of wiping and this has become a catalyst in the abstract visuals of charcoal drawing. Diptej lives and works in Goa, India. Diptej Vernekar | Untitled 1 Charcoal on Acid Free Paper 19.2 x 25.2 Inches 2021 Diptej Vernekar | Untitled 2 Charcoal on Acid Free Paper 19.2 x 25.2 Inches 2021