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Neerja Deodhar profile imageNeerja Deodhar
Is the art landscape in India undergoing a much-needed shift?

An overhaul in gallery programming, a growing crop of younger collectors, and focusing on politics in art-making are some of the factors bringing about alterations in the Indian art world

In rural West Bengal—Sundarbans’ Kumirmari, more specifically—Soumya Sankar Bose returned the art he created to the context it was born in. The Marichjhapi island and the massacre that took place in 1979, resulting in the forcible eviction of Bengali lower caste refugees, are the subject of his series Where the Birds Never Sing. Over a long period, Bose engaged with the disenfranchised survivors, creating images of the landscape. With Kolkata-based contemporary art gallery Experimenter, Bose put up enlarged versions of the images that became “sentinels” and “silent witnesses” to a complex history marked by loss.


Bose’s endeavour and Experimenter’s support for it are signs of shifts taking place in the Indian art landscape, including a changing notion of what constitutes art, who consumes and buys it, and how art spaces are moulding their curatorial voices. Inevitably, this will impact who can be an artist, and who visits galleries to be transformed by the art exhibited in them.

Sculptor Vinita Mungi was the first artist to exhibit at Chemould CoLab earlier this year; Image: Chemould CoLab

Sculptor Vinita Mungi was the first artist to exhibit at Chemould CoLab earlier this year; Image: Chemould CoLab

Experimenter Outpost,  takes exhibitions outside the gallery space; Image: Neel Bhattacharjee, courtesy: Experimenter

Experimenter Outpost, takes exhibitions outside the gallery space; Image: Neel Bhattacharjee, courtesy: Experimenter

These shifts are not removed from history, or the larger art world; art anywhere has always responded to political and social factors. In India, specifically, a different trajectory began two decades ago, with the participation of Indian artists at Documenta 11, as curator, art critic and poet Ranjit Hoskote observes. The current shift is a response to the social churning of the last decade, coupled with the entry of younger artists from newer domains, and the rise of a new art patron.

Establishing relationships

Priyanka Raja, the founder of Experimenter, with her husband Prateek, says that their gallery’s programming is a reflection of their own personal and political stances. To them, an artist’s status as a young, mid-career, emerging or established practitioner is just a function of how long their career has been.

“Ours is a very slow process, like a marriage. It begins like dating, we begin with following the artist—sometimes over two years before any expression of intent, going over, seeing their studio—very old-school in terms of how much time we take in these decisions. But once we have, it’s a long-term marriage,” she explains.

This year, saw the birth of Chemould CoLab, an extension of the six-decade old Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai. It was created by Atyaan Jungalwala and Sunaina Rajan, both in their 20s, with the intention to cultivate and nurture artists from their own generation.

Vinita Mungi's work pushes the boundaries of cermaic materials; Image: Chemould CoLab

Vinita Mungi's work pushes the boundaries of cermaic materials; Image: Chemould CoLab

While scouting through portfolios and Instagram pages of young artists, there was a lot that caught Jungalwala’s and Rajan’s attention. “We were witness to their rigour, dedication and deep involvement once we actually sat down to understand their practices either through Zoom calls or studio visits,” says Jungalwala.

The political gaze

Hoskote says that there has been some amount of palpable response to the ecological crisis and the crises of rights in the public sphere, but “one wishes there was more—except some of these issues are so overwhelming that artists need time to produce art that is of abiding value.”


Experimenter is not spoken about without mentions about how its art holds up a mirror to society. To them, picking ‘political’ artists was never a formula; politics is inherent to art-making. “Whether they are painters who work in abstraction like Biraaj Dodiya, or Rathin Barman who looks at the architecture when he thinks of narrative, they’re all political beings, so it’s impossible that they do not make work that is not reflective of today’s realities. We don’t consciously look for ‘political’ artists, but somehow we gravitate towards practice that is intellectually stimulating,” she says. The most fundamental criterion for selection is that the artists’ work should occupy her mind for days on end.

"I THINK THE NEED FOR FOR SUCH SPACES IN INDIA IS NOW MORE THAN EVER—TO SEE ART IN NEW LANDSCAPES AND SITES, AND PUSH IT OUT OF THE TRADITIONAL WHITE CUBE GALLERIES"

Sunaina Rajan

At the Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts in Panjim, curator and programme director Leandre D'Souza says that ultimately, projects which are inclusive and promote collaboration have the potential to blur the binaries between art and life, in addition to building empathy and sharing ideas about what the future could look like.

A growing mentorship infrastructure

D’souza says that in recent times, the culture of mentoring has been undervalued. Initiatives like Sunaparanta Art Initiator Lab (SAIL) aim to correct this by promising a chance for cultural practitioners to re-imagine and refine their practices.

Over at Chemould/SHIFT, Jungalwala says she would like their programmes to be artist-led, including peer-review sessions. “We also use the access we have to the senior artists for studio visits, mentorships, a critique or just engage in a dialogue with one another,” she says. Though it may be some time before the younger artists are incorporated in the regular programming, she does hope to visualise their work alongside those of senior artists.

Hoskote remarks that what is being termed mentorship now has been practised across the generations in an informal manner. “It’s being systematised in a sense, because there are templates available. It comes out of an art ecology where there’s more of a consciousness now that there are forms of training and dialogue that exceed the academy,” he explains.

Pushing boundaries

Rajan drew from her experiences in the United States, where she was witness to exhibitions and installations being housed in unorthodox spaces, from churches to abandoned warehouses. “I think the need for such spaces in India is now more than ever—to see art in new landscapes and sites, and push it out of the traditional white cube galleries. Sugra Manzil [in Colaba, Mumbai], with its rich history and characteristic architecture, can be a starting point for this concept,” she remarks.


Meanwhile, in an effort to be a thinking, agile gallery, Raja and her team conceptualised Experimenter Outpost, which takes exhibitions outside the gallery space. “Going beyond the white cube expands the notion of what art even is, far beyond what a gallery sells to a museum or collectors,” she says.

A new patronage

As the Indian art world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic over 2020 and 2021, auctions began to take place in physical settings and online, with stunning results. Among the record-breaking sales during this period were Amrita Sher-Gil’s In the Ladies’ Enclosure as well as an untitled oil on canvas by V.S Gaitonde. The art market’s resilience amid the pandemic was attributed to a number of factors, one of which is the entrance of a new class of patrons alongside more traditional ones—first-time buyers who are curious and recognise art as being a reliable investment. Gallerists have noted that money from the world of tech, which created a new wealthy class, is now flowing into art.

Artist Mandy Barker is known for her work that addresses the critical issue of marine plastic debris in our oceans; Image: Sunaparanta 

Artist Mandy Barker is known for her work that addresses the critical issue of marine plastic debris in our oceans; Image: Sunaparanta 

Chemould Shift situated in the bylanes of Colaba hopes to exhibit work by artists in their early years

Chemould Shift situated in the bylanes of Colaba hopes to exhibit work by artists in their early years


Raja, who is wary of the term ‘investor,’ says, “There is a growing range of collectors who are independent, young, first-generation who are buying ephemeral works and newer mediums.” At Experimenter, buyers of art are put through a vetting process of their own: potential collectors are given material about artists to inform their decision-making. Raja asserts that the focus is on art appreciation and not commercial gains.


Speaking of a past where the gallery was founded by her grandparents, Jungalwala looks to the future with a model suited to the next generation. “While interacting with younger collectors, I realised the need to build a platform which would give them access to younger artists—prices of artworks which are feasible to first-time collectors and works that young aspiring collectors are able to connect with,” she says.

In the public eye

Are these shifts in programming and the choice of artists changing the profile of the average gallery visitor? Raja recounts that she had to work from scratch towards outreach initiatives during the early days. But what helped was the very nature of Kolkata; openings would welcome both the well-heeled as well as any city resident who was interested in art. “Our audience is very diverse and very involved. They don’t associate galleries with the acquisition of art but rather as public spaces to see art,” she explains.

“THERE IS A GROWING RANGE OF COLLECTORS WHO ARE INDEPENDENT, YOUNG, FIRST-GENERATION WHO ARE BUYING EPHEMERAL WORKS AND NEWER MEDIUMS”

Priyanka Raja

Sometimes, the location of the gallery itself can be a crucial determinant—take, for example, Sunaparanta, whose premises feature a well-loved cafe. Or, as Hoskote points out, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi, which is situated in a mall, and the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation within Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya.


“It is the failure of the art world if it doesn’t reach out to different constituencies,” says Hoskote. He rues the lack of institutional imagination, as galleries fail to be more responsive to the historical moment. The hope he holds is that the art landscape expands its notion of what an exhibition can be, which voices are included in conversations, and how institutions go about programming.

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