Delhi Art Week 2023: Art brings people together for dialogue about diversity

A walkthrough in Lodhi Art District by St+art India Foundation, part of the third edition of Delhi Art Week, December 1-10.

Ahmedabad-based artist Karl Antao started carving huge logs in his studio in the middle of the pandemic to create sculptures that question the plight of values from the society. Three years later, nine sculptures in wood from his day and night work reflect many material aspects from unsustainable development to abandoning of the elderly.

Ahmedabad-based artist Karl Antao's sculpture from Rooted Spine solo exhibition at the Gallery Espace.

Rooted Spine, JJ School of Art, Mumbai alumnus Antao's new show at the Gallery Espace in the national capital, warns the world of the repercussions from a wayward progress in the works made from Burma teak. "When the spine breaks, a person falls. Spine here is a metaphor for the social structures," says Antao, referring to the focus of the sculptures, each weighing from 150 kg to 700 kg, on people standing up against loss and destruction.

Rooted Spine, which opened at the Gallery Espace on December 1, is among several exhibitions spread across the city during the Delhi Art Week, now in its third edition. Scheduled from December 1 to 10, the event has brought together artists, galleries and cultural institutions for dialogue about challenges facing the society from social decay to climate change.

First held in 2021 to support the art community hit by a crushing pandemic, the Delhi Art Week is a completely in-person event this year compared to its online beginnings and hybrid shows in the past two editions. "As an initiative, Delhi Art Week has learnt the valuable lesson from the Covid-19 pandemic that not only is it possible to work together with a collective response, but it also establishes a strong foundation for building a vibrant and sustainable future for Indian art on a global scale," say gallerists Tariq Allana of Art Heritage, Sunaina Anand of Art Alive Gallery and Reena Lath of Akar Prakar.

From street art in Lodhi Art District to sculptures and installations across galleries, the Delhi Art Week has assembled an array of works from established and emerging artists. On the second day of the event, many art enthusiasts joined a walk through organised by the Delhi-based St+art India Foundation which brought street art to Lodhi Colony's residential blocks.

At the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), artist Jatin Das was feted by the art community with a retrospective and a book on his six-decades-long career on December 2. "It was not easy to make a selection for the retrospective," says Das, who recalled the support from his artist friends at the beginning of his career.

Somenath Hore's untitled bronze work from the 1980s at Past Continuous exhibition at Art Heritage gallery.

"Each successive edition of Delhi Art Week offers an opportunity for us to address various challenges related to raising awareness about Indian art within our city," say the organisers. "By collaborating as a community of galleries and institutions and partnering with organizations such as the Indian Art Fair and the NGMA, the third edition of Delhi Art Week aims to provide exposure and convenient access to the very best of modern and contemporary art."

F N Souza's painting from DAG's exhibition, Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, Edition 3.

Among the exhibitions during the Delhi Art Week are New York-based painter and printmaker Tara Sabarwal's In the Forests of the Night, a collection of abstract works from Art Alive Gallery curated by Jesal Thacker, which opens on December 8 at the Bikaner House, two DAG shows — Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, Edition 3 and Delhi Durbar: Empire Display and Possession of History, both on view until December 16 — and Art & Deal and Art Konsult's show, Rhythms of the Soil: Santiniketan's Artistic Roots at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre on view until December 7.

The event is spread across four art zones in the city covering over 20 galleries. The private and public art institutions include NGMA, Bikaner House, The Partition Museum and Dara Shukoh Cultural Hub, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Alliance Francaise and Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan.

Joydip Acharjee's geometric pattern, Heave, at Palette Art Gallery's show, Parallel Narratives.

The NGMA will host a talk series, Art in the Heart of Delhi, in collaboration with the India Art Fair during December 9-10 to examine the existing infrastructure for art in the city. Ojas Art gallery's show, The Divine Deities: Oleographs by Raja Ravi Varma, which opened in October will conclude on December 10. Prints made with oil paint, the oleographs were created by Raja Ravi Varma during 1848-1906 based on popular images of goddesses.

The NGMAs will also host a film series during December 9-10 about the history of contemporary art by chronicling the lives and artistic oeuvre of some of India’s greatest artists and creative thinkers like Rabindranath Tagore and Amrita Sher-Gill.

Visual artist KP Pradeepkumar's Habitual Trails at Art Centrix Space gallery's solo exhibition, The River Flowing Through Me.