Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora in New York

The exhibition, 'Erasing Borders: Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora' explores the contributions of artists whose origins can be traced to the Indian Subcontinent. This will be IAAC's 8th annual Erasing Borders exhibition.

The first edition of the 'Erasing Borders' exhibition in 2004, curated by Sundaram Tagore, focused solely on artists of the Indian diaspora. Due to its enormous success, the IAAC decided to schedule annual exhibitions of contemporary Indian art. Since then, the annual IAAC Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art has been curated by Vijay Kumar. Following is the curator's statement, elaborating on the motive of the ambitious event:

‘Erasing Borders’ exhibition includes work by 43 artists working in a wide variety of media-from painting, to photography and digital media, video, animation, installation, sculpture, and printmaking. For many of these artists of course, their relationship to the Indian sub-continent plays a major role, not only in terms of images or content, but also in terms of color and materials used. And for many, the issues raised as they straddle two diverse cultures also provide impetus for their work.

Much of the work in this year's exhibition is both literally and figuratively multilayered, with artists combining many different media in overlapping layers to make images intricate yet nuanced, specific yet elusive. Antonio Puri describes his work in these terms: "It is multilayered and complex with veneers, glazes, varnishes of emotions, transgressions, singularity, obsession, and enigma. I am interested in comparing connections between my eastern roots and my western experiences."

Other artists describe their own work in psychological, emotional, or spiritual terms, referencing memory, myth, dreams, imagination of course, cultural heritage, history, time, socio-political and feminist concerns, religious iconography, pop culture, even magic-to which I would add "nostalgia". As Anujan Ezhikode explains, "My work deals with cultural identity, displacement and memory. I am reinterpreting that familiar place which over time can't help but be altered and re-imagined.

As the past unwinds, there is a longing to reconnect. Connections once broken become retied and memories long hidden resurface. Color, images, and time all intersect with an absence of boundaries."

(Information courtesy: The Indo-American Arts Council, New York, NY)