Sunil Gupta Indian, b. 1953
Born in 1953 in New Delhi, Sunil Gupta has a master’s of arts from the Royal College of Art, London, and a PhD from University of Westminster, London, and has been involved with independent photography as a critical practice for many years focusing on race, migration and queer issues.
Gupta has several solo shows to his credit, including the Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto (2021); the Photographer’s Gallery, London (2020); Brixton Tate Library, London (2020, 2019); Hales Gallery, New York (2019); Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto (2018); the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2018); Pelz Gallery, University of London (2017); Cardiff Photo Festival (2017); SepiaEYE, New York (2017, 2014); Whitney Humanities Centre, Yale University (2015); Grosvenor Vadehra, London (2010); and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2009), to name a few. His group participations include the Barbican Art Gallery, London (2020); Vancouver Art Gallery (2019); Soho Art Gallery, New York (2019); Leslie Lohman Museum, New York (2019); the Kochi–Muziris Biennale (2018); the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2015), among many others.
In the 1980s, Gupta constructed documentary images of gay men in architectural spaces in Delhi, his Exiles series. The images and texts describe the conditions for gay men in India at the times. Gupta’s recent series Mr. Malhotra’s Party updates this theme during a time in which queer identities are more open and also reside in virtual space on the internet and in private parties. His early documentary series Christopher Street was shot in the mid 1970s as Gupta studied under Lisette Model at the New School for Social Research and became interested in the idea of gay public space.
Gupta’s published work includes the monographs: Queer: Sunil Gupta (Prestel/Vadehra Art Gallery, 2011); Wish You Were Here: Memories of a Gay Life (Yoda Press, New Delhi, 2008); and Pictures From Here (Chris Boot Ltd., New York, 2003). His latest publications are Lovers: Ten Years On, Stanley Barker, 2020; and Sunil Gupta: From Here to Eternity, Autograph, 2020 (which won the Kraszna-Krausz Photobook Award 2021). His forthcoming publication is titled London 1982 (Stanley Barker, 2021).
He is a professorial fellow at UCA, Farnham; visiting lecturer at Kingston University and visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art, London. He was lead curator for the Houston Fotofest in 2018. His work is in many private and public collections including; George Eastman House (Rochester, USA); Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Royal Ontario Museum; Tate Modern; Harvard University and the Museum of Modern Art.
The artist lives and works in London.
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Towards an Indian Gay Image, Qtub Minar, 1983 , 2021
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Towards an Indian Gay Image, Lake Pichola, Udaipur, 1983, 2021
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The New Pre-Raphaelites series (Edition 1/7), 2008
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The New Pre-Raphaelites-13 (3/7), 2008
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The New Pre-Raphaelites-07 (3/7), 2008
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The new pre-raphaelites#11"specification (Edition 3/7), 2008
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Untitled # 2
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Frieze London 2021
A Brief Current 13 - 17 October 2021A Brief Current features a collection of recent artworks by leading Indian contemporary artists Rameshwar Broota, Atul Dodiya, Anju Dodiya, Sunil Gupta, Shilpa Gupta and...Read more -
Art Basel OVR: Pioneers 2021
Sunil Gupta | Cruising 1960s Delhi 24 - 27 March 2021Indian-Canadian, London-based artist Sunil Gupta is a pioneering photographer, writer, curator and activist, whose often theatrical artistic engagements are armed, autobiographical interventions into mainstream cultural...Read more
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Works by Sunil Gupta at MOMA
MoMA 13 December 2021 -
Works by Sunil Gupta at Tate
Tate 13 December 2021 -
From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta. A Retrospective
The Photographers Gallery 13 December 2021Born in New Delhi, India, relocated to Montreal, Canada, before studying at the Royal College of Art in London, Gupta has been using photography as...Read more -
Delhi: Why you need to check out Call Me By Your Name, the star-studded art exhibition at Vadehra Gallery
By Shikha Sethi | GQ India 24 November 2021At the newest exhibition at Vadehra Gallery in Delhi, it’s a star-studded lineup: Atul and Anju Dodiya, Arpita Singh, Gieve Patel, Sudhir Patwardhan, NS Harsha,...Read more -
Sunil Gupta: retrospective
The Times 1 December 2020Merging cultural activism and photography, Sunil Gupta has been instrumental in raising awareness around the fight for international gay rights throughout the modern world and...Read more -
‘We wanted to have sex all the time’: first major survey of Sunil Gupta—photographer of gay Indian life—opens in London
By Kabir Jhala | The Art Newspaper 9 October 2020When the photographer Sunil Gupta exhibited his Exiles series—depicting the hidden lives of gay men in Delhi—in a group show at the Photographers' Gallery in...Read more -
Sensitive gaze
By Shailaja Tripathi | The Hindu 10 June 2011This is how it works usually. A photographer picks up a subject, sticks to it for some years, then moves on to work on yet...Read more -
Sunil Gupta at Whitechapel: rewriting the history of photography II
By Sunil Gupta | The Telegraph 10 February 2010 -
Where they’re coming from
By Louise Roug | Los Angeles Times 19 September 2004Born in New Delhi, Sunil Gupta spent his teenage years in Montreal before attending university in New York and, later, London. His upcoming show of...Read more -
Sunil Gupta: A gay Indian photographer makes a searing commentary on life on the fringes
By Lavina Melwani | India Today 10 January 2000Sunil Gupta does not open doors. As always, with his exhibition entitled 'From Here to Eternity' running in New York now, he smashes down walls,...Read more -
ART IN REVIEW; Sunil Gupta -- 'From Here to Eternity'
By Holland Cotter | The New York Times 7 January 2000Sunil Gupta, who was born in New Delhi and lives in London, has participated in two important New York museum group shows, ''Out of India''...Read more