The annual art event, India Art Fair is scheduled to take place at the NSIC grounds, Okhla Industrial Area, New Delhi, from 9th to 12th February 2018. The new Fair Director Jagdip Jagpal, who took over the post from the founder Neha Kirpal in August this year, has brought in fresh additions and a larger showcase under each of the fair’s sections. Indian galleries will see a strong representation, enabling a deeper engagement with local artists along with those from South Asia.
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 re-gion’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).
Platform, which acts as a springboard for emerging art practices and art collectives from South Asia, will grow to welcome Tribal Art Forms and Delhi Crafts Council (both New Delhi) for the first time. Pichvai Tradition & Beyond (New Delhi) will return, making ver-nacular arts a particular focus. Platform will also welcome back Britto Art Trust (Dhaka), Nepal Arts Council (Kathmandu), Swaraj Art Archive (Noida) and Blueprint 12 (New Delhi).
Complementing the fair’s regional perspective, carefully selected international galleries will showcase globally-recognised artists, many of whom have never exhibited in India before. 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.
Presented within a dedicated exhibition space 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).
More non-profit and public institutions will participate than in any previous year. India’s most influential cultural organisations partnering with the fair include Kiran Nadar Mu-seum of Art, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art, Floodlight Foundation and B M Anand Foundation. The fair will also engage with other leading non-profits like the Kochi Biennale Foundation, Gujral Foundation, Devi Art Foundation and KHOJ.
Presented in a redesigned events space, India Art Fair’s public events program 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.
India Art Fair is testing a professional learning program, which will offer an insight into the arts industry. India Art Fair is also committed to supporting opportunities for young people and will partner with Penguin Random House India for the first time to present a creative zone for children.
