Nandini Valli Muthiah, Reassurance, 2006, from the series Definite Reincarnate, 2003-2016. Inkjet Print. Courtesy of the artist.
On view: March 10–April 22, 2018
Silver Street Studios, 2000 Edwards St. Houston, Texas 77007
Winter Street Studios, 2101 Winter St. Houston, TX 77007
The Silos, 11502 Sawyer St. Houston, TX 77007
Asia Society Texas Center, 1370 Southmore Blvd. Houston, TX 77004
The exhibition features 47 leading or emerging photographic and new media artists of Indian origin working in India and the global diaspora. Exhibited in four Houston venues, including three restored industrial buildings in the Washington Avenue Arts District and a new collaboration with Asia Society Texas Center, the exhibition is ambitious, presenting a diverse range of approaches and ideas.
Organized by Lead Curator Sunil Gupta and FotoFest Executive Director Steven Evans, INDIA: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art address issues of caste and class, gender and sexuality, activism and conflict, racism, religion, nationalism, new technologies and development, the environment, human settlement, migration, and integration. The exhibition is merely one component of FotoFest’s India program, which also includes a hardcover book co-published by FotoFest and Schilt Publishing in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; a two-day symposium; public conversations with curators and artists; a program of films from India; literary events; culinary programs; and a unique curriculum for K-12 students and family learning activities developed by FotoFest’s learning program, Literacy Through Photography.
The artists featured in the 2018 Biennial central exhibition include:
Indu Antony (Bangalore, India)
Pablo Bartholomew (Delhi, India)
Atul Bhalla (Delhi, India)
Mohini Chandra (Fiji/UK/Australia)
Sheba Chhachhi (Ethiopia/Delhi, India)
Serena Chopra (Delhi, India)
Tenzing Dakpa (Delhi, India)
Sarindar Dhaliwal (Canada/Mumbai, India)
Anita Dube (Delhi, India)
Gauri Gill (Delhi, India)
Chandan Gomes (Delhi, India)
Shilpa Gupta (Mumbai, India)
Shivani Gupta (Goa, India)
Vinit Gupta (Delhi, India)
Apoorva Guptay (Mumbai, India)
Abhishek Hazra (Bangalore, India)
Sohrab Hura (Delhi, India)
Manoj Kumar Jain (Delhi, India)
Samar Singh Jodha (Dubai, UAE)
Ranbir Kaleka (Delhi, India)
Rashmi Kaleka (Delhi, India)
Max Kandhola (Birmingham, UK)
Roshini Kempadoo (UK/Guyana)
Asif Khan (Delhi, India)
Anita Khemka and Imran B. Kokiloo (Delhi, India)
Sandip Kuriakose (Delhi, India)
Dhruv Malhotra (Delhi, India)
Arun Vijai Mathavan (Ahmedabad, India)
Annu Palakunnathu Matthew (UK/USA)
Uzma Mohsin (Delhi, India)
Nandini Valli Muthiah (Chennai, India)
Pushpamala N. (Bangalore, India)
Dileep Prakash (Delhi, India)
Ram Rahman (Delhi, India)
Raqs Media Collective (Delhi, India)
Anoop Ray (Delhi, India)
Vicky Roy (Delhi, India)
Vidisha Saini (Delhi, India)
Hemant Sareen (Delhi, India)
Gigi Scaria (Delhi, India)
Mithu Sen (Delhi, India)
Rishi Singhal (Gandhinagar, India)
Leila Sujir (Montréal, Canada)
Ishan Tankha (Delhi, India)
Prince Varughese Thomas (Houston, USA)
Anusha Yadav (Mumbai, India)
INDIA BIENNIAL PROGRAMS
Fotofest exhibitions are an extensive presentation addressing issues in contemporary India, a dynamic and diverse nation of over one billion people. The book features over 300 four-color reproductions from established and emerging artists of Indian origin.
The book is a program of the FotoFest, in conjunction with FotoFest’s exhibitions, a two-day symposium, artist and curator talks, a film program, and a school curriculum for students developed by the FotoFest Photography learning program. Together, the programs engage a number of contemporary issues within India, including economic development, education, land use and environmental concerns, religion, gender and sexuality, caste and class, activism and conflict, racism, religion, nationalism, new technologies and development, human settlement, migration, and integration.
ADDITIONAL BIENNIAL PROGRAMS
Originating from the Biennial’s acclaimed International Meeting Place Portfolio Review for Artists, it is among the most popular of FotoFest’s programs. After each Biennial, FotoFest invites a cross-section of ten reviewers to each select one artist whose work was their most interesting discovery of the Meeting Place Portfolio Reviews. These artists are then featured at the following Biennial’s Discoveries of the Meeting Place exhibition.
Each of these artists was selected by ten international reviewers chosen from among the 150 curators, editors, publishers, gallery owners, and collectors who reviewed work at the FotoFest 2016 Biennial Meeting Place. Tasked to identify artists they found particularly compelling, these reviewers uncovered diverse, provocative and surprising, bodies of work. The accompanying curatorial statements create a three-way dialogue between the artists’ images, the curators’ interpretations, and the viewer. The exhibition and its curatorial process are intended to give a voice to both the artists and the curators who participate in FotoFest’s Meeting Place Portfolio Review.
In contrast to FotoFest’s curated exhibitions, the portfolio reviews are designed as an open program, without pre-selection or juries, a place where artists can personally meet and show their work to influential people who may help in the development of their art and their careers.
ABOUT SUNIL GUPTA, BIENNIAL 2018 CURATOR
FotoFest Lead Curator Sunil is an artist, writer, activist, and curator with nearly four decades of creative production. He curated the 2010 exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh at Whitechapel Gallery, London, a landmark exhibition featuring over 70 artists, that gave an inside view of how modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been shaped through the lens of their photographers.
FotoFest Director Steven invited Gupta to lead the curatorial team organizing the Biennial, citing his decades-long research into South Asian photography, which includes the Whitechapel exhibition and many others, books, and surveys of art professionals in India and abroad. Mr. Evans provides the introduction to the book.
BIENNIAL 2018 SPONSORS
Generous funding for this publication, exhibition, and related programs is provided by:
The Brown Foundation, Houston Endowment, Commission on the Arts, The Worth Foundation, The Powell Foundation, The FotoFest Board of Directors, Art Magazine, Arts+Culture Texas Magazine, European Photography Magazine.
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