‘Making it engaging, accessible’: Weeklong exhibition in Delhi celebrates contemporary art

Celebrating the 35th anniversary of Gallery Espace this year, director Renu Modi said, “We are constantly reinventing DCAW, and there is an attempt to do something different through the platform each year. For instance, there was focus on the colour red last year; this time we are exploring textile more closely.”

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Visitors look at the artwork on display.

In an art market where modernists are traditionally considered to attract the highest prices and attention, in 2017, a group of galleries in Delhi came together with the aim of giving a platform to contemporary art and artists. Eight years hence and in its seventh edition, at the DCAW preview at Bikaner House on Friday — that boasts participation of six galleries — art enthusiasts started trickling in hours before the official opening. “The scope, scale and reach of DCAW has multiplied manifold since its first edition. It is now an integral part of the city’s cultural calendar and through it we aim to create accessible platforms for knowledge-sharing and art education, inviting a wider audience across all age groups to engage with contemporary art,” stated Bhavna Kakar, founder-director of Latitude 28 gallery, and co-founder of DCAW (Delhi Contemporary Art Week).

Celebrating the 35th anniversary of Gallery Espace this year, director Renu Modi said, “We are constantly reinventing DCAW, and there is an attempt to do something different through the platform each year. For instance, there was focus on the colour red last year; this time we are exploring textile more closely.”

At DCAW, the gallery is showing, among others, works by artists such as Amit Ambalal, Manjunath Kamath, Ravi Agarwal and Tanmoy Samanta. The highlights include Dhaka-based Soma Surovi Jannat’s drawing installation Time without Birth and Death that “explores the concept of cyclical existence, of birth and death, conveying through motif and form, a sense of infinity and the continuity of nature”.

While Exhibit 320 has a curated selection meant to foster innovative thinking and explore new media, Latitude 28 has, among others, works by Ankush Safaya, Harman Taneja and Sudipta Das that reflect on ideas of belonging and home. If Prajjwal Choudhury has digital prints on handmade matchboxes in works from the “To Be Continued” series, in a woodcut from “Somewhere in Northeast India” series, Chandan Bez Baruah explores the impact of urbanisation on forests in Assam.

At Vadehra Art Gallery, the highlights include Anita Dube’s Erotics/Politics (2020) that uses text in her trademark enameled votive eyes, layered portraits by Faiza Butt, and recent drawings by Sudhir Patwardhan. Speaking about the curation of the gallery for the showcase, Parul Vadehra, co-director of Vadehra Art Gallery, stated, “We try to represent the gallery’s programme and the different generations we represent, from post-modernists to contemporary artists and very young artists.”

Presented by Shrine Empire gallery are recent works by Amitava Das as well as textile works by Hema Shironi and Natasha Das that interweave personal histories with politics of the region and sustainability. Blueprint 12, meanwhile, has among its array of artworks, textile and acrylic on canvas titled Koovagam — Wedding and a Funeral by Aravani Art Project, a collective led by trans-women and cis-women that is also exhibiting at the ongoing Venice Biennale.

Apart from separate gallery presentations, the edition includes two thematic exhibitions. Dedicated to textile art, “Threads that Bare” explores how Indian textiles have evolved, with artists also giving a modern twist to traditional techniques and using them to depict contemporary themes. Curated by Girish Shahane, the exhibition titled “A Bold Step Sideways”, meanwhile, highlights “art/artists that sidestep traditional notions of art and history”.

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Vadehra notes how the event also attracts younger audiences and collectors. “We have been introduced to several new collectors and youngsters interested in art through the platform. There are people who might be intimidated to walk into a gallery but since this is a public space it breaks a lot of boundaries.”

DCAW is on till September 4.

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