Rescheduled from February 2022 to April 2022, the India Art Fair returns in its physical glory after two years. Raising the excitement in the South Asian art scene, the 13th edition of the India Art Fair will be presenting a diverse roster of 79 exhibitors including 65 galleries and 14 institutional participants —cultural festivals, collectives, foundations— such as the Chennai Photo Biennale, Kochi Biennale Foundation, Space Studio from Vadodara, Serendipity Arts Foundation, the Aravani Art Project, and more at New Delhi’s NSIC Exhibition Grounds.
Beginning from today till May 1, 2022, the fair will not only be hosted on the NSIC Grounds but will also be hosted in the metaverse. The fair aims at showcasing the city’s local art culture and curating the art scene of neighbouring countries. The 13th edition of the fair, thus, aims at looking forward to new formats, emerging art spaces and creative partnerships.
According to a release, India Art Fair 2022 has partnered with XR Central to produce a digital twin of this year’s fair for a browser-based 3D metaverse experience. The visitors will be able to select and customise full-body avatars for their virtual visit. Additionally, the XR Central team has worked to deliver several choices of headgear, skin colour and body type to create an inclusive and diverse metaverse experience. Furthermore, to gain an immersive experience, visitors will be able to clip between first-person and third-person point-of-views and interact with friends and family at the metaverse version of the India Art Fair 2022. The metaverse space will not be having a fee and will be accessible through a variety of devices and browsers.
The facade of the fair, by Anshuka Mahapatra, will be drawing attention this year. Its design will be celebrating hope and togetherness through poetic phrases in seven languages such as Odia, Kannada and Assamese. Alongside regular segments such as auditorium talks, film screenings, outdoor projects and artist-led workshops, the 13th edition will include a new space called The Studio. The Studio seeks to look beyond visual arts to create connections between design, fashion, food and technology. The Studio and the workshop space will host a range of artist-led interventions curated by Kriti Sood of LAND (Learning through Arts, Narrative and Discourse), thereby allowing the audience to engage and interact with art. Other than that, some of the projects include games from artist duo Thukral and Tagra, interactive bots from Indian techart platform BeFantastic and an installation of light and shadow play by Tapan Moharanna, the Space 118 Grant winner.
Besides some prominent contemporary art galleries such as Vadehra Art Gallery, Nature Morte, Gallery Espace, Experimenter, Chatterjee & Lal, India Art Fair will also witness seven art spaces, namely APRE Art House from Mumbai, Art Incept, Gurugram/New Delhi, Terrain.art and Vida Heydari Contemporary from Pune, making their debuts. That said, four international galleries including Aicon Art (New York, USA), Aicon Contemporary (New York, USA), Grosvenor Gallery (London, UK) and Galeria Karla Osorio (Sao Paolo, Brazil) will be making their return.
What: India Art Fair 2022
Where: NSIC Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi
When: April 28, 2022 to May 01, 2022
Image credits: India Art Fair