For the first time, five of India’s most influential art galleries collaborate in Chennai for Contemporary now

At Chennai’s Lalit Kala Akademi, Contemporary Now brings a significant moment: the city known for its deep-rooted classical tradition is now host to a powerful showcase of contemporary art. The exhibition brings together five of India’s most influential galleries — Chemould Prescott Road, Vadehra Art Gallery, Chatterjee & Lal, Experimenter, and Ashvita’s, featuring thirty-seven artists across generations. Each participating gallery brings its own curatorial legacy, artistic programme, honed over years of working with artists and shaping contemporary art discourse. 

The exhibition spans painting, sculpture, photography, performance, textiles, installation, and hybrid forms. The selected artworks engage with themes such as identity, gender, ecological change, urban transformation, and personal histories. 

For instance, Kolkata-based artist Moumita Das draws from artisanal traditions, domestic labour and abstraction. Her works often entail the use of hemp, wool, cotton and silk. “I work with form, colour and textures inspired by nature, while weaving in social issues that shape our everyday life. The layers in my work symbolise the distinct stories, emotions and feelings of different people, which all come together to create an artwork, where people can relate to each other,” she says.

Artist Praneet Soi’s series titled Spring is created from his ongoing work with craftsmen in Kashmir, where he was fascinated by how the decorative pieces are papier-mâché – the layering of paper, clay from the Jhelum river, tissue, and varnish, and then painted with intricate motifs – a skill that is passed down from the master to the pupils. “I asked a craftsman if he could develop these into tiles that felt more like canvases to me. It took us nearly a year to solve the technical challenge, but once we did, it opened up the space for collaboration. Now, the process is shared, we sit together, decide on the colours and pattern, and something new comes up every time,” says Praneet, who is based out of Amsterdam.

“We wanted the exhibition to be as inclusive and layered as the idea of ‘contemporary India’ itself. We curated for balance across mediums (painting, sculpture and photography), geographies, and generations within our presentation. The aim was not just diversity for its own sake, but to show how multiple practices coexist with each other,” says Roshini Vadehra Director, Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi.

Visual artist Soumya Sankar Bose’s series Full Moon on a Dark Night explores his interest in psychological aspects around gender identities and antiquated laws and culture that surround these questions. Full Moon on a Dark Night began in 2015, almost a decade ago — well before Section 377 was decriminalised in 2018. “Rooted in the people I grew up with and friends I have known for years, the project looks at the everyday negotiations with identity and desire. It traces the personal and social lives at a time when visibility carried both risk and resilience. Built on shared histories and trust, the work offers an intimate portrayal of queer lives in Bengal,” shares Soumya. One shows Subir, a friend in a hotel room in Midnapore, West Bengal and the other a white tiger at Alipore Zoo, Kolkata. 

“We wanted to provide a capsule presentation of artists in our programme. From the younger generation, we have included Moumita Das, who works as a fibre artist incorporating weaving and dyeing techniques into her practice. We have also brought works by mid-career artists Nityan Unnikrishnan and Nikhil Chopra. Whilst Nityan’s paintings are known for their busy and congested compositions filled with people, Nikhil’s mysterious landscapes are lonely, uninhabited places,” says Mortimer Chatterjee, director Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai. 

Artist and academic Adip Dutta’s ink work piece Woven Shadows XVI, takes one through the bustling footpaths, tightly packed with tarpaulin. “I am intrigued by the transformative character of these spaces. During the day, they have got a completely different presence in the sense that they are crowded with hawkers and their merchandise, then when I visit these spaces at a point of time when these shops are closed, and things are packed, it acquires a different character altogether,” says Adip. 

Prateek Raja, director & co-founder, Experimenter, shares the importance of collaboration. “We are keen that our artists’ works are seen by wider audiences, appreciated, and understood by people who may be encountering them for the first time. Even the artists are enthusiastic, because whenever people engage with new practices, new questions emerge and new curiosities are sparked.”

Contemporary Now is on at Lalit Kala Akademi till September 17