On View:

IN DIALOGUE
TRADITION & TRANSFORMATION

May 04 - June 08, 2025

Curated by:
Noelle Kadar

Presented by:
Whitewall Magazine

Asim Waqif | Biraaj Dodiya | Doyel Joshi & Neil Ghose Balser Jitish Kallat | Mark Prime | Narayan Sinha | Prarthna Singh | Rana Begum | Shilpa Gupta  | Tarini Sethi | Thukral & Tagra 

Whitewall’s first exhibition in India, presented at Jaipur Centre for Art, positions contemporary artistic practices within the cultural context of Jaipur, articulating the evolving dynamism of the country.

  India’s artistic heritage is one of profound storytelling—woven into textiles, carved into stone, painted onto miniature canvases, and reimagined through contemporary lenses. The artists in this exhibition build upon these legacies, responding to the evolving narratives of a country in constant transformation. Through mediums ranging from painting and sculpture to installation, they explore themes of memory, urbanization, and global exchange, offering perspectives both rooted in and reaching beyond the subcontinent.

  By placing these voices in conversation, the exhibition seeks to transcend geographical and temporal boundaries, embracing a vision of India that is fluid and multifaceted. Whitewall has long championed the intersections of art, design, and luxury—fields where craftsmanship and innovation converge. This show continues that mission, spotlighting artists whose work speaks to the rich complexity of contemporary Indian creativity while honoring its deep historical foundations.

  JCA, as the setting for this landmark presentation, provides a space where these ideas can unfold with both intimacy and grandeur, inviting audiences to engage with the vibrancy of India’s contemporary art scene. This exhibition is not just a celebration but an invitation — to look, to question, and to discover.

  Coinciding with the launch of Whitewall’s Spring Art Issue dedicated to India, the exhibition brings together a dynamic group of artists whose practices centre on notions of revival, material presence, and evolving societal structures. Through their varied approaches, the artists open up a dialogue between inherited forms and emerging change.

Melding architecture, ecology, and sculpture, Asim Waqif’s practice challenges notions of space, decay, and urban sustainability. His site-specific installations often inhabit neglected or abandoned spaces, reactivating them through labor-intensive, tactile interventions. Blending traditional building techniques with new media technologies, Waqif’s work critiques systems of consumption and waste while celebrating vernacular knowledge and manual craft. His sculptures—sometimes deliberately designed to deteriorate—underscore the transience of human constructions and the fragile negotiation between nature and built environments .

Biraaj Dodiya’s deeply introspective practice traverses painting, sculpture, and installation, crafting meditative spaces that explore memory, impermanence, and emotional resonance. Her layered compositions, marked by abstraction and subtle material interventions, conjure dreamlike, nocturnal landscapes that suggest fragility and passage. Drawing from both personal experiences and broader existential questions, Dodiya’s work invites viewers to contemplate states of loss, hope, and transition. With exhibitions at venues like Experimenter Gallery, Frieze New York, and Art Basel, Dodiya’s voice continues to enrich the evolving conversation around form, temporality, and inner life .

Founded by artist duo Doyel Joshi and Neil Ghose Balser, Howareyoufeeling.studio is a collaborative practice rooted in material experimentation, emotional resonance, and shared authorship. Working across sculpture, installation, and participatory forms, the duo explores themes of impermanence, intimacy, and diasporic memory through vernacular materials and evolving forms. Their work resists static definition, creating tactile spaces where vulnerability and connection unfold slowly. At once grounded and affective, their sculptures invite reflection on care, identity, and the quiet endurance of collective experience.

Jitish Kallat is one of India’s most celebrated contemporary artists, whose work traverses the intimate and the infinite. From painting and sculpture to installation and video, Kallat’s wide-ranging practice grapples with themes of sustenance, mortality, temporality, and cosmic interconnectedness. Drawing from historical archives, scientific diagrams, and philosophical thought, he creates works that bridge personal experiences with universal concerns. His solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and his curatorial leadership of the 2014 Kochi-Muziris Biennale have positioned him as a vital voice in the global art discourse.

Mark Prime’s interdisciplinary approach, drawing from industrial materials, architecture, and music, creates a distinctive body of work that resonates with urban life and sonic memory. His minimalist paintings, characterized by bold blocks of color and reflective surfaces, juxtapose with more intricate sculptural forms that weave together mechanical detritus and vibrant textures. Prime’s work bridges abstraction with narrative, inviting viewers to consider the rhythms and residues of everyday environments. Through a language both formal and lyrical, he crafts spaces where memory, sound, and structure converge .

Transforming discarded industrial materials into profound sculptural works, Narayan Sinha bridges the mechanical and the metaphysical. His practice breathes new life into objects otherwise deemed obsolete—metal scraps, auto parts, and utensils—elevating them into symbols of regeneration and spiritual transformation. Self-taught and deeply influenced by a childhood immersed in machinery, Sinha’s large-scale installations embody cycles of life, death, decay, and rebirth. Honored with the 2024 Artists for the Earth prize, Sinha’s work reflects an ecological consciousness and emotional sensitivity that deeply resonate with contemporary environmental and cultural dialogues .

Prarthna Singh’s photographic practice engages questions of gender, identity, and resistance, often situated within the charged context of contemporary India. Her images navigate the tension between vulnerability and strength, reflecting the complexities of a nation in flux. With a deep sensitivity to uphold individual truths, Singh’s work renders visible the emotional and political landscapes shaping modern India.

Rana Begum’s luminous abstractions dissolve the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and architecture, inviting dynamic interplay between light, color, and form. Drawing inspiration from Islamic geometric patterns, urban environments, and the tenets of Minimalism, Begum’s works are often crafted from industrial materials such as painted aluminum, animated by shifting perspectives and changing ambient light. Her compositions offer a quiet yet transformative experience, suggesting both the ordered structures of traditional craftsmanship and the ephemeral qualities of lived experience. With exhibitions at Tate St Ives and Mead Gallery, Begum has become a leading figure in contemporary abstraction .

A pivotal voice in the landscape of contemporary Indian art, Shilpa Gupta’s multidisciplinary practice confronts systems of control, censorship, and borders—both geographic and psychological. Working fluidly across installation, sound, video, and participatory formats, Gupta interrogates the invisible structures that govern collective and individual existence. Her minimal yet profoundly resonant works create spaces where silence speaks volumes, drawing attention to erased histories and censored voices. Exhibited internationally at Tate Modern, MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and the Venice Biennale, Gupta’s art offers an urgent, poetic commentary on how power and surveillance intersect with notions of belonging .

The artist duo Thukral & Tagra bring a playful yet politically astute lens to their multimedia practice. Working across painting, sculpture, design, gaming, and immersive installations, they explore contemporary issues of migration, consumerism, mythology, and identity. Their earlier works critically engaged with globalization and its effects on Indian society, while their more recent projects reimagine mythological narratives through vibrant, participatory environments. By creating new formats for public engagement, Thukral & Tagra expand the role of art beyond the gallery, inviting dialogue around community, belonging, and cultural evolution .

Tarini Sethi’s visionary practice imagines utopian worlds where bodies are free from the constraints of traditional gender, form, and societal norms. Working across drawing, painting, and sculpture, Sethi fuses Indian art historical references with a futuristic, fluid visual language. Her luminous metal sculptures and expansive drawings create universes defined by acceptance, love, and boundless transformation. By challenging systems of repression and celebrating the infinite possibilities of the human form, Sethi offers a bold, hopeful vision for the future of cultural and corporeal identity .

By weaving together these distinct yet interrelated practices, the exhibition offers a portrait of contemporary India that is layered and deeply resonant. JCA, as the setting for this landmark presentation, provides a space for these dialogues to unfold—an invitation to engage with the country’s artistic landscape in all its diversity.