Delhi Contemporary Art Week: A trance-fixing assemblage of South Asian artworks

Paintings featuring flora from the Delhi Ridge, mixed-media textile works, tapestry harking back to Afghan heritage, metaphysical drawing installations and so much else — the Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) is here to welcome a galaxy of contemporary voices in South Asian art.
In its seventh edition, DCAW has six leading art galleries of the Capital coming together, namely Blueprint12, Exhibit 320, Gallery Espace, Latitude 28, Shrine Empire, and Vadehra Art Gallery. Among the highlights are a drawing installation by Bangladeshi artist Soma Surovi Jannat exploring cyclical existence and birth and death (Gallery Espace); Al-Qawi Nanavati’s work that infuses her late mother’s belongings into her art (Latitude 28); Hema Shironi and Natasha Das’ work with textile that traces their personal histories, South Asian politics and sustainability (Shrine Empire). 
A new set of paintings by Baroda-based artist Rashmimala, depict the ground plant species specific to the Delhi ridge, Ravi Agarwal’s photographs of an abandoned office, and Tanmoy Samanta’s luminous canvases of liminal shapes. “This year we are celebrating the gallery’s 35th anniversary and our presentation at DCAW will give a glimpse of the depth of our programming – with fresh works by Rashmimala, Ravi Agarwal, and Tanmoy Samanta alongside senior artist Amit Ambalal. Ishita Chakraborty, Sharad Sonkusale, Sheetal Gattani, and Sonia Mehra Chawla are also part of the showcase,” said Renu Modi, founder-director of Gallery Espace, in a statement.
Meanwhile, freely traversing styles and mediums in works by artists from each gallery, will be the group exhibition A Bold Step Sideways, curated by Girish Shahane. Painting and photography, among a spectrum of other mediums, form the core of Vadehra Art Gallery’s curation, for which director of the gallery, Roshini Vadehra says, “Across its six editions, DCAW has managed to further the rising talents and ideas of contemporary and emerging artists. I always look forward to the exciting week-long curations that come together under a common space for seasoned and new collectors from the capital and across the country. It is a unique collaborative presentation by the Delhi galleries that is always welcomed by great enthusiasm by the art community and we hope to see more of that this year as well.”
While new media buffs will be able to further their pursuit of aesthetic exploration and visual dialogue at Exhibit 320, others must also checkout the the works of the established and emerging artists from the subcontinent such as Zoya Chaudhary, Gopi Gajwani, Soma Surovi Jannat, Khadim Ali, Chandan Bez Baruah, Tayeba Begum Lipi, Jagannath Panda, Anju and Atul Dodiya. 
What: Delhi Contemporary Art Week 
Where: Bikaner House, Pandara Road, India Gate 
When: August 31 to September 4 
Timing: 11am to 7pm 
Entry: Free 
Nearest Metro Station: Khan Market (Violet Line)