7 Reasons to visit DCAW 2022

At the launch of the Delhi Contemporary Art Week 2022, our team was overwhelmed by the humdrum created by the large number of attendees comprising a mixed gathering of artists, handbag-holding culture connoisseurs and Gucci-wearing fashionistas, among others. While this gathering itself was a spectacle of sorts, we managed to take a good look at the large number of exhibits, and here we offer you 7 reasons why you should visit this year’s edition of DCAW:

1. Gallery-hopping in one space

What prevents Delhi art lovers from very actively hopping across galleries is the fact that art institutions in the city are a bit spread out geographically. This often makes it logistically difficult to visit many of them in a single day. The most that one could do is visit a small area where a few galleries are located nearby, such as Lado Sarai and Defence Colony. 

The Delhi Contemporary Art Week is an opportune occasion to visit 7 eminent contemporary art galleries of the city — located across geographically spread out Art Zones — in the singular space of Bikaner House. 

2. Showcasing the “Contemporary”

The DCAW’s Instagram page contains a post wherein founders from the seven galleries tell us what the ‘contemporary’ in ‘contemporary art’ means to them. While for one gallerist, contemporary art comprises “the ideas and concerns of young people expressed through a different lens”, for another, contemporary art “can be just anything, there’s no limits anymore… So the best contemporary art is about commitment…”. 

The entire CCA exhibit brings together these seven different visions, combining into a larger vision that both shows and challenges the idea of ‘contemporary art’ in the country today. 

3. Fresh faces exhibit alongside Masters

The seven galleries have done an excellent job of bringing to the fore some interesting fresh faces, who have started showing their works in public quite recently. While in the past, prominent art galleries haven’t risked showcasing many younger, largely unknown names, the DCAW has taken a firm stand in highlighting new artists, some of them in their twenties. This is a chance for the audience to witness art at its nascent stage, towards the beginning of artists’ professional careers. 

This being a “Contemporary Art” show, even the Masters’ selected belong to the recent past. An example of this is a work by Sudhir Patwardhan from 2018, where the artists has gone back to his early, expressionistic brushwork. These works present a good opportunity for the art-loving visitors to witness the continuous unfolding of Indian art legends, who are often showcased only in retrospectives. 

 

 

 

 

4. Unique Curation across two buildings

The 7 galleries have made the interesting choice of not using the ‘booth’ logic for their collective display. The curation they have chosen instead, lends a fluidity to the boundaries between the different galleries. The entire event is showcased in two buildings in the Bikaner House — the CCA (Centre for Contemporary Art) and the Old Building. 

The gallery-wise exhibition, carrying the bulk of the exhibition, has been put up in the CCA. Even though the rooms and other areas in the building have been allocated separately to the seven galleries, each gallery has used various spaces across the two floors. In other words, each gallery is showcasing in several spaces, and as a viewer, one never knows when and how they will again encounter the gallery they just traversed. This varied conglomeration puts emphasis on the works displayed, which are not very strictly tied to a curatorial theme.

On the other hand, the display in the Old Building is held together by a very particular curatorial theme, ‘Legal Aliens’. This space has been curated by Meera Menezes, and shows works by artists from all seven galleries, focusing on dislocation, alienation and identity.

The entire spatial configuration of the show blurs the boundaries between the inside and outside. It is spread out yet logically categorised, organised yet messy. Cluttered yet neatly divided. All in all, DCAW 22 is a liquid experience.

5. Ranging from the grandiose to the irreverent

The various works displayed not only vary in medium and material, but also in their aesthetics. While one lower-floor space of Exhibit 320 contains a large, in-your-face grandiose circular piece, the booth for Blueprint 12 in the vicinity contains works that are not grand in their scope, but a fun experience instead. An example of the latter is an origami piece, where small individual pieces shrink and then assemble together to create a larger picture. 

The sublime, the whimsical, the serious, the irreverent, the profound, the challenging — the audience is bound to come across such varied aesthetic modes, all in one place. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Collaboration with SPIN

SPIN, a young Delhi-based furniture brand, happens to be one of the many collaborators for DCAW ‘22, and we witnessed its presence in different locations in the CCA. One collaboration of note is the ‘Drawing Room’ at the end of the second floor, where SPIN has curated works from the seven galleries, with minimalism being the common thread. After having walked across the voluminous display, we felt relaxed and comfortably seated in this small room where the show spatially culminates. This is a small room, with chic and comfy furniture by SPIN, surrounded by complementary minimal artworks on the wall. While all other spaces in the CCA emphasise on the artworks on display, this room creates an intimacy where one could feel the harmonious symbiosis possible between the art on the walls and the decor of the room. While other spaces highlight the artworks, this area is interior design brought to an artsy space.

 

 

 

7. Bikaner House!

The Bikaner House in and of itself is a unique visual and experiential delight. Located in the India Gate Hexagon, the building is a combination of erstwhile British and Rajasthani royal sensibilities. Its different buildings are embellished with good decor, and open out to pink-tiled grounds surrounded by pruned greenery. The complex contains different iconic restaurants as well; so after basking in the visual glory of the exhibition, one could enjoy a good meal to end their gallery-hopping on a hale and hearty note.

 

 

 

The Delhi Contemporary Art Week 2022 is open for the public from 1st September to 7th September 2022, at the Bikaner House, New Delhi. The 7 galleries exhibiting are: Vadehra Art Gallery, Gallery Espace, Shrine Empire Gallery, Blueprint 12, Latitude 28, Exhibit 320, and Nature Morte.