Latitude 28 begins this season with the group show, Dissensus going on at Bikaner House, New Delhi. The exhibition continues its commitment to emerging artists, contextualizing their work alongside eminent artists and also brings acclaimed international artists to India for the first time. The show is on view at Bikaner House, New Delhi. This year they have introduced Priyanka D’Souza, a young MSU Baroda trained artist, who responds to deeply political and social contemporary issues through work that is inspired by Mughal miniatures. Her work is on display alongside Veer Munshi’s collaboration with Kashmiri craftsmen—another instance of maintaining continuity between tradition and contemporary liberal, humanist ideas. Also presented are works by Australia-based artist Khadim Ali, who was recently featured in Art Asia Pacific’s list of top 40 artists under 40 in the Asia Pacific region and acclaimed artist Waseem Ahmed. Dissensus also marks the first India exhibition for Iranian artist Neda Tavallaee, who addresses her feminist concerns through the language of Persian miniatures.
The exhibition brings together works by six artists who have been witness to the political and identity crises in regions of ongoing conflict—Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Kashmir in India and Pakistan. Even when the issues that are of immediate concern to them range from gender, territorial dispute, anxieties regarding cultural annihilation and ethnic marginalization, these artists withdraw into immediate, everyday contexts, and markers of cultural identity to construct quiet acts of dissent away from the central political stage. These intimate testimonies and observations employ the aesthetic to develop a micro-poetics of the stakes borne by civilians whose concerns are overlooked in media-narratives driven by political figureheads, capital and diplomatic ties. It is not coincidental that several artists find a language in the subtlety of the miniature tradition to voice their politics. Scale and detail evoke the marginal locations of their themes, and the multitude that is united in these narratives.
Through curated shows, careful strategising and discovering emerging artists with exciting practices, Latitude 28 over the years has become synonymous with cutting edge art coming out of the country, seeking out fresh perspectives in its attempt to stimulate commercial interest in new waves of art-making. The establishment aims to cultivate a space where collectors and art enthusiasts can interact with younger artists and their practices. It provides a horizontal environment where younger artists are able to contextualise their work alongside the masters of Indian art, experiment with medium, material and institutional critique. They have supported Kartik Sood, Anindita Dutta, and Shweta Bhattad in their innovative practices, exhibiting them alongside veterans such as Anupam Sud and Baiju Parthan. The gallery collection consequently includes cutting edge contemporary alongside modern masters.
The show is on view at Bikaner House, New Delhi till 16 July