The 2017 edition of India Art Fair featured a section titled, Vernacular in Flux, curated by art historian Annapurna Garimella, that highlighted the best names and works from indigenous art forms like Gond, Mithila and Guruvayoor art. This year too, the Fair organisers have ensured that these treasures from Indian subcontinent get their share of attention and hence two important collectives — Tribal Art Forms and Delhi Crafts Council would make their debut here under their Platform section. Along with this, another Delhi-based collective, Pichvai Tradition & Beyond would make its re-entry to highlight the imprint of folk art tradition in India to a wider audience.
It is with this rejuvenated outlook, the prominent modern and contemporary art Fair would be welcoming art lovers, collectors and international audience to the much-awaited 2018 edition which will take place at NSIC grounds, Okhla from February 9 to 12. This refreshed approach is an outcome of new Fair Director, Jagdip Jagpal’s vision to expand programming across each of the fair’s sections and test out new ideas.
Here are the highlights of this edition:
National galleries: Galleries returning to the fair include Chatterjee & Lal, Jhaveri Contemporary, The Guild (all Mumbai), Threshold Art Gallery, Latitude 28 (New Delhi) and Kalakriti Art Gallery (Hyderabad). Prominent galleries showcasing the region’s Modern masters will include DAG (New Del-hi/Mumbai/New York) and Dhoomimal Gallery (New Delhi). Offering insights into the region’s emerging art scene, the fair will also feature younger galleries like TARQ (Mumbai) and Anant Art (New Delhi), alongside first-time participants Samara Art Gallery and ZOCA (both Ahmedabad).
International galleries: David Zwirner (London/New York/Hong Kong), Blain | Southern (London/Berlin), Karla Osorio Gallery (Brasilia), Mo J Gallery (Busan) and Richard Koh Fine Art (Singapore/Kuala Lumpur) will participate for the first time.
Platform section: Platform, which acts as a springboard for emerging art practices and art collectives from South Asia, will also welcome back Britto Art Trust (Dhaka), Nepal Arts Council (Kathmandu), Swaraj Art Archive (Noida) and Blueprint 12 (New Delhi).
Art Projects: For the first time, Art Projects will showcase large-scale installations by Indian artists G. Ravinder Reddy (THE LOFT at Lower Parel with Emami Art), Shilpa Gupta (FICA), Nandan Ghiya (Exhibit 320), Tanya Goel (Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke), Sudipta Das (Latitude 28), Subba Ghosh (Anant Art) and Navjot Altaf (The Guild) alongside Pakistani artists Imran Qureshi (Nature Morte), Zoya Siddiqui (Shrine Empire) and South Korean artist Timothy Hyunsoo Lee (Sabrina Amrani).
Public Events Programme: Presented in a redesigned events space, India Art Fair’s public events programme will feature artist talks and industry debates, live events and digital artworks. Highlights include a moving image work by Hetain Patel, alongside a new strand of talks titled ‘I know what you did last summer’, which will invite established artists to present on recent international projects. The first participant to be announced is Waqas Khan.
