All You Need To Know About The Upcoming 7th Delhi Contemporary Art Week 2024

The seventh edition of the Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) will once again showcase the best of South Asian art and contemporary voices at Bikaner House from August 31 - September 4 this year. Born from a desire to spark conversations about contemporary issues, the festival aspires to be a home for everyone interested in the art world.

Here’s a preview of what you can expect from DCAW 2024.

A Stellar Line-Up Of Artists

Six galleries will showcase a compelling selection of works by established and emerging artists from India and the broader subcontinent. Bringing their own unique curatorial vision and artistic strengths to DCAW, the galleries celebrate the diversity and richness of contemporary artistic practices through varied mediums.

To begin with, Blueprint 12 will exhibit works of selected artists such as Divyesh Undaviya, Meghana Gavireddygari, Zoya Chaudhary, the Aravani Art Project and Anila Govindappa, among others. Their works will explore the rich tapestry of emotions, cultures and narratives of contemporary South Asian art through thought-provoking expressions.

Exhibit 320 will highlight the works of Deena Pindoria, Deepak Kumar, Jayati Kaushik, Kaushik Saha, Kumaresan Selvaraj, Priyantha Udagedara, Gopi Gajwani and Gunjan Kumar, among others. This year, the emphasis of the exhibition space is on new media and its structures as a place of creative endeavour, aesthetic exploration and visual dialogue.

Next, Gallery Espace will feature Amit Ambalal, Ishita Chakraborty, Rashmimala, Ravi Agarwal, Sharad Sonkusale, Sheetal Gattani, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Soma Surovi Jannat and Tanmoy Samanta. The goal is to present a lively and varied collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures by leading artists across generations and graphic mediums. A highlight of the presentation is a drawing installation by Soma Surovi Jannat, a young artist from Dhaka. Her “Time without Birth and Death” is an intricate work that explores the concept of the cyclical existence of birth and death, conveying through motif and form a sense of infinity and the continuity of nature. Furthermore, visitors will also be able to check out a new set of paintings by Baroda-based Rashmimala, Ravi Agarwal’s photographs of an abandoned office and Tanmoy Samanta’s luminous canvases of liminal shapes.

Meanwhile, Latitude 28 will feature artists using weaving, crochet, embroidery, zardosi and kantha techniques to manipulate fabric and integrate it with other art forms and textures. Highlights include Khadim Ali's tapestry work influenced by his Afghan heritage, Veena Advani’s mixed media paintings with hand embroidery, Viraj Khanna’s narrative-based embroidered works, and Al-Qawi Nanavati's art which incorporates her late mother's belongings. Other artists include Ankush Safaya, Anupama Alias, Chandan Bez Baruah, Farhat Ali, Harisha Chennangod, Harman Taneja, Jahangir Asgar Jani, Prajjwal Choudhury, Shubham Kumar, Sudipta Das, Waswo X. Waswo, Yogesh Ramkrishna and Zahra Yazdani.

The staff at Shrine Empire will be showing the works of Hema Shironi and Natasha Das for the first time. The artists work with textiles and explore various contexts that relate to their personal histories, the politics of their region and sustainability. Amitava Das’s recent works will also be exhibited. Other participating artists are Anoli Perera, Arun Dev, Awdhesh Tamrakar, Divya Singh, Sajan Mani, Samanta Batra Mehta, Sangita Maity, Shruti Mahajan and Tayeba Begum Lipi.

Finally, the Vadehra Art Gallery has curated an ensemble of exciting South Asian artists practising within the subcontinent and beyond, including Anita Dube, Anju Dodiya, Atul Bhalla, Atul Dodiya, Faiza Butt, Gigi Scaria, Jagannath Panda, Jasmine Nilani Joseph and Joya Mukerjee Logue, among others. With a focus on painting and photography, the works are designed to usher in reflection and discourse on topical narratives growing out of contemporary South Asian culture.

A Special Exhibition

If this is not enough to whet your cultural appetite, a special group exhibition curated by Girish Shahane will also be held. Featuring artists from each participating gallery, “A Bold Step Sideways” highlights art and artists who sidestep traditional notions of art and history. Embracing a generation of artists unencumbered by the anxieties of influence, this exhibition showcases a diverse array of works that freely traverse styles and mediums.

The seeds of this unique exhibition sprang from the ubiquity of today's technological landscape. Unlike previous eras marked by ironic references and postmodern pastiche, today's artists navigate a cultural landscape where historical time converges like apps on a smartphone—accessible everywhere at once. This flattening of time fosters a unique artistic freedom where abstraction and figuration coexist harmoniously alongside personal narratives and explorations of identity. “A Bold Step Sideways” reveals how performativity in social media has elevated the autobiographical, making personal and political identities central to contemporary discourse. This event aims to celebrate a profound shift in artistic perspective where stepping sideways replaces the avant-garde leap forward, and where art history evolves in tandem with the complexities of today's interconnected world.

The Information

Date: August 31-September 4

Venue: Bikaner House, between Pandara Road and Shahjahan Road, India Gate, New Delhi, Delhi 110011

Visit @delhicontemporaryartweek on Instagram for more details.