From 3 to 6 February 2022, the 13th edition of the India Art Fair will be held at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds in New Delhi. The event will feature 75 exhibitors in total, including 62 galleries and 13 institutes. Following her appointment in April 2021, Jaya Asokan will direct the event for the first time. 'Participants from cities other than New Delhi and Mumbai, like as Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Ahmedabad, will be welcomed at the 2022 fair,' Asokan said.
APRE Art House (Mumbai), Art Incept (Gurugram / New Delhi), Frangipani Art Gallery (Ahmedabad), Gallery Art Exposure (Kolkata), Modern Art Gallery (New Delhi), Ojas Art (New Delhi), and Vida Heydari Contemporary will all debut at the 2022 fair (Pune).
The event, like many others throughout the world, was canceled in 2021 owing to Covid-19. India recorded almost 400,000 new cases in a single day in May, putting medical resources on the brink. Experimenter's Prateek Raja called the situation "heartbreaking, inhuman, and just disgusting" at the time, while Nature Morte's Aparajita Jain claimed it was "like war." 'We have been heartened to see a broadly collaborative spirit in the Indian art world over the past year, with everyone from artists, gallerists, and institutions to grassroots foundations and festivals creating creative, mentoring, and funding opportunities for one another,' Asokan told.
'We are thrilled to see an unprecedented number of non-profit organizations participating in the fair, including Artdemic and The Gujral Foundation, which organized an open call to find an artist to design the India Art Fair's colossal façade, Serendipity Arts Foundation (Goa), Kochi Biennale Foundation (Kochi), and Space118 (Baroda), which will present newly commissioned large outdoor art projects by artists who received grants during the pandemic,' she added.
A giant painting by the women and trans-women collective Aravani Art Project, as well as a presentation of NFTs by Terrain.art, a South Asian art-focused blockchain-powered web platform, will be featured at India Art Fair 2022. Asokan expressed her desire to turn India Art Fair into a year-round program of journalism, videos, online lectures, seminars, and artist spotlights.
'Given what we've learned in the last year about the importance of technology, why not use it to educate, engage, and inspire audiences?' she says. Although the initiative is ambitious, Asokan has good reason to go big. 'I honestly feel India is at a crossroads, poised for tremendous opportunity and prosperity,' she stated.
Selena Mattei