Celebrating art in the age of quarantine

Artist Indrapramit Roy on his quarantine drawings and paintings as soliloquies

4 min readNew DelhiSep 7, 2022 07:00 PM IST

Artist Indrapramit Roy. (Credit: Threshold Art Gallery)

Confined at home, like most others, during the COVID-induced lockdowns, artist Indrapramit Roy decided to document the times in the form of a visual diary, where he began to weave together words and drawings in what he christened “Quarantine Drawings”.

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Associate Professor in the Painting Department at Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda, Roy says, “When the lockdown was first announced in March 2020, I found myself in a peculiar situation. Suddenly, life had come to a standstill. I had a lot of time at hand and it seemed like a rare luxury to be able to spend the whole day in the studio at a time when there was bad news coming each day… I initially thought of making one work a day, which is how the ‘Quarantine Diary’ started.”

“Imaginary Homeland” Water Colour and Collage Paper 42X29.5 inches. (Credit: Threshold Art Gallery)

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The observations also led to larger works, culminating in the exhibition titled “Soliloquy” that was recently held at Threshold Art Gallery in the Capital. “All paintings are, in some sense, soliloquies. They are inner dialogues that are manifested. The unprecedented hardship of people around me during the lockdown – the helplessness, the surfeit of bad news coming from all sides and my relatively privileged existence with a roof above my head and food on my plate and perhaps no less importantly the luxury of time at my disposal — I wondered, shuddered, questioned and pondered. It has been a continuous process,” says Roy, 58.

The set of over 50 works made during the last two years largely depict the artist‘s ponderings during the period, influenced by uncertainty and also “misinformation masquerading as news”. Depicting an under construction building, the set of works titled The Ordinary Lies, for instance, portray how the usual “markers of our development paradigm” altered during the pandemic, with construction as a metaphor.

“Quarantine Diary -Threat” Water Colour on Paper 10X14 inches. (Credit: Threshold Art Gallery)

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Having exhibited across the world, from Berlin to Bangkok, London to New York, in a career spanning three decades, the lockdown also propelled the artist to look at some of his earlier works, including photographs and drawings of cacti that he had made during a visit to the El Paso border in the Mexican city of Juarez many years ago. The immediate trigger was another trip, around eight months before the pandemic, to Kevadia Colony in Vadodara that’s populated by cacti. Finding beauty in their inherent geometry, he has painted them in muted colours and with sharp needle-like thorns. “Cacti in their myriad shapes and sizes are a veritable showcase of nature’s perfect geometry and design but they also embody the principle of attraction and repulsion in equal measure,” notes Roy.

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Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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