"For the first time, Chennai will witness the coming together of five of India’s most influential galleries — Chemould Prescott Road, Vadehra Art Gallery, Chatterjee & Lal, Experimenter, and Ashvita’s — to present a landmark survey of contemporary art in the country. Contemporary Now is both a window and a mirror: a panoramic view of the dialogues shaping Indian art today, and a reflection of how these conversations resonate with the city’s own cultural sensibilities.
Each gallery brings a distinct curatorial vision, shaped by its program, history, and way of seeing. Encountered side by side, these perspectives reveal the breadth of thought and practice at work in India today. Curated across five galleries, the exhibition features thirty-seven artists working in painting, sculpture, photography, performance, textiles, installation, and hybrid forms. They come from across the country — from Kashmir to Kerala, Goa to Bengal — yet share a common urgency: to respond to the complexities of our present moment.
Some revisit tradition to reimagine it, drawing from miniature painting, mural art, or indigenous craft, placing heritage forms into contemporary political and social contexts. Others look to the body as a site of memory and identity, engaging with questions of gender, sexuality, migration, and belonging. Many confront environmental realities, mapping ecological change, urban growth, and shifting relationships between people and landscape. Across the exhibition, radical experimentation with material and form expands the possibilities of how art can be made, experienced, and understood."
- Ashvin E. Rajagopalan
