Places of solace and places of strife: In Conversation with Sarah Naqvi
Critical CollectiveSarah Naqvi speaks of women in her family and women in Islam, and the constant churn in the effort that underlies her multi-faceted practice.

19 Jul 2021 | Interview

Parvez's performative gestures:The subversion of the capitalist art economy
Deeksha NathThe author writes on performance and lens based artist Parvez’s seven month long project in Switzerland questioning the presumptions around audience interaction and the sites of art presentation.

19 Jul 2021 | Essay

"Wet feet on a rock": Interview with Jyoti Bhatt
Girinandini SinghJyoti Bhatt, Asia Society awardee 2021 on documenting the folkloric tradition of India, and the significance of the accessible archive in the digital age.

19 Jul 2021 | Interview

Visualising The Virus: On Science Gallery Bengaluru’s Exhibition: Contagion
Bhavya SahOn the multiple imaginaries of a virus in Science Gallery Bengaluru's 'Contagion', an online exhibition exploring the transmission of "emotions, behaviours, and diseases."

19 Jul 2021 | Essay

Home is a queer brown body: Interview with Sunil Gupta
Gayatri SinhaSunil Gupta speaks to Gayatri Sinha on the occasion of a major retrospective at The Photographers Gallery.

14 Jun 2021 | Interview

Interview with Chitra Ganesh
Critical CollectiveFrom classical Buddhist texts to early science fiction Chitra Ganesh speaks of the femme body as a site for subversion and transformation.

14 Jun 2021 | Interview

"My journey as an artist is often through stories of people and places"
Critical CollectiveBoston and Lahore based interdisciplinary artist Hamra Abbas’s practice moves across media and materials to re-envision the great tradition of story-telling (dastangoi), Gongbi, and more.

14 Jun 2021 | Interview

Reality/Chen, Simply Being/Tse-jan, Cosmic Spirit /Ch’i: Chinese Connection
Virginia WhilesEmerging from a severe lockdown in France Virginia Whiles visits an exhibition on Morandi at the Musee de Grenoble, and is moved by his precise, poetic economy of style.

14 Jun 2021 | Review

“Distant Suffering”: Our Covid Visual Field
Gayatri SinhaAs images of the ravages of the pandemic play out, Gayatri Sinha writes of the condition of lockdown and death as spectacle. (2021)

24 May 2021 | Essay

What‘s in a Zine: A Very Brief Overview
Shromona DasShromona Das' introduction to the two part edition, on how comic-zines have a long history of using an alternative mode of circulation as a tool of political resistance. (2021)

24 May 2021 | Essay

Summer's Children: Nostalgia, Memory and a Keralan Summer
Critical CollectiveAnpu Varkey on her recently released non-textual graphic novel Summer's Children and the creative process of conjuring the emotional landscape of her childhood in black, white and sepia tones. (2021)

24 May 2021 | Interview

A feminist super hero? : Priya’s Transformation in Priya and the Wolves
Arushi VatsThe Priya comic series has rebranded the protagonist with an eye towards global audiences, adapting myth to India’s socio-political realities. (2021)

24 May 2021 | Essay

On Gandhi in the Gallery: The Art of Disobedience
Roobina Karode in conversation with art historian and curator Siva Kumar, artist Ravi Kumar Kashi and Sumathi Ramaswamy on Gandhi, his image and its legacy in contemporary art.

22 Apr 2021 | Interview

Crescendo and Failure: Damien Hirst’s solo exhibition 'Mental Escapology’
Deeksha NathThe author reviews Hirst's solo exhibition in Switzerland as a good introduction to the artist's oeuvre but as missing the opportunity to contextualise his practice within 21st century art.

22 Apr 2021 | Review

Restless Creations: Adeela Suleman's Art for Social Change
Virginia WhilesVirginia Whiles speaks with sculptor Adeela Suleman on her use of found objects and dark humour in her work, as a way of exploring social and ecological violence, tragedy and censorship in Pakistan

22 Apr 2021 | Interview

Memory and Metaphor: A Conversation with Indu Antony
Girinandini SinghIndu Antony speaks to Critical Collective on staged photographs, the popular tropes that she explores and the insertion of queer bodies to question mainstream narratives

22 Apr 2021 | Interview

Anita Khemka on Photo-documenting Laxmi Narayan Tripathi
Critical CollectiveOn International Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31), Anita Khemka writes on her two-decade-long experience photo-documenting Laxmi aka Dr Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who led the transgender presence

23 Mar 2021 | Interview

Interview with Sahil Naik
Critical CollectiveSahil Naik on participating in the fifth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and his response to the given thematic of the event- the power of a collective commons. (2021)

22 Mar 2021 | Interview

Interview with Atul Bhalla
Critical CollectiveThe artist on our current ecological and water crises and on consolidating his practice in the midst of the pandemic. (2021)

22 Mar 2021 | Interview

Interview with Student Biennale curators Archana Hande and Vasudha Thozur
Critical CollectiveCurators of the Students’ Biennale speak to CC about working with student-artists and exploring the position of their own practice in the curatorial framework of framework of the exhibition. (2021)

22 Mar 2021 | Interview

Remembering Anjum Singh (1967-2020)
Ella Datta and Gayatri SinhaWith tributes by Ella Datta and Gayatri Sinha.

19 Nov 2020 | Essay

Kapila Vatsyayan (1928-2020): A Personal Tribute
Ashok VajpeyiCelebrated Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi writes on the illustrious work and life of Kapila Vatsyayan.

21 Sep 2020 | Essay

Notes on Covid-19 | Part II
VariousIndian gallerists reflect on exhibition-making and the potential of digital platforms in the times of a global lockdown.

18 May 2020 | Interview

Bringing together Devi Prasad, Vasudeo Smart and Haku Shah
Sandhya BordewekarAn exhibition at the bi-annual Tapi festival presented the works of three artists committed to the indigenous craft traditions of India.

18 May 2020 | Review

Notes on Covid-19
Critical CollectiveCC examines the effect of the ongoing global crisis on visual culture and the institutions and infrastructures of art.

14 Apr 2020 | Report

Urban Exploration in Pooja Iranna's Silently: a proposed plan for rethinking the Urban Fabric and Nataraj Sharma's Travel Log
Girinandini Singh23 Mar 2020

CC Shorts | March 2020
Capsule exhibition reviews.

05 Mar 2020 | Review

CC Shorts | February 2020
Capsule exhibition reviews.

11 Feb 2020 | Review

Indian Art: 2010-2020
VariousA look at the trends and major developments of the past decade and their implications for the future of Indian art.

24 Jan 2020 | Report

CC Shorts | January 2020
A compilation of capsule reviews.

13 Jan 2020 | Review

New India’s New Delhi?
Critical CollectiveA look at the recent Central Government proposal to rehaul the capital’s iconic Central Vista.

03 Jan 2020 | Report

Neighbours
Indrapramit RoyA new exhibition at Gallery White celebrates “the craft of painting at a time when finesse and craft both are a bit beleaguered and under-valued,” writes Roy.

27 Dec 2019 | Review

Politics and Protest at Bikaner House
Amrita Chakravarty and Najrin IslamReviews of Probir Gupta’s latest exhibition ‘Family is Plural’ and Maya Krishna Rao’s opening performance ‘Loose Woman’.

12 Dec 2019 | Review

CC Shorts | December 2019
Capsule reviews.

29 Nov 2019 | Review

Inspired by the East: how the Islamic world influenced Western art
Virginia WhilesA new exhibition at the British Museum, pointing to longer histories of exchange between Islam and the west, seeks to qualify the discourse on Orientalism.

22 Nov 2019 | Review

Imaging the Wild
Ketaki VarmaSIGHTINGS/out of the wild unpacks the figure of the animal in Indian visual practice with forty artists’ works on display.

15 Oct 2019 | Review

Echoes of Sound and Silence
Zahra AmiruddinA review of ‘as it rises into the air: listening in practice’.

24 Sep 2019 | Review

Silken Tales from the Royal Ateliers to the Urban Karkhanas
Sama HaqThe writer reviews Pra-Kashi, a textile exhibition at the National Museum in Delhi.

24 Sep 2019 | Review

In Conversation
Amal and Nissar Allana speak to Gayatri Sinha about staging the plays of Girish Karnad

04 Jul 2019

Poets, Gangs and Chinese Matisses
Virginia Whiles engages with the exhibition The Naked Form in Modern Chinese Art at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford

27 Jun 2019

Confronting the Universal Human Condition
Anish Kapoor's exhibition examines the human need to address our own physical capacity, writes Janine Powell

26 Jun 2019

What’s in a Name? Black Models and Historical Legibility
Najrin IslamOn the racial nomenclature of black models who worked in the salons of post-abolition Paris, and the rise of black artists in modernist history

20 Jun 2019

Jitish Kallat: Chronicler of the Quotidian and Arbiter of Time
A book review by Manjusha Madhu

16 May 2019

Connecting Threads: Textiles in Contemporary Practice
Katyayani SinhaA review of Bhau Daji Lad’s latest exhibition curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta and Puja Vaish.

17 Jan 2019

The Met’s Devotion to Pahari Painting
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art currently hosts an exhibition of Pahari artworks, with the goal of introducing visitors to bhakti. Reviewed by Gale J. Berninghausen.

17 Jan 2019

Book Review
Parul Dave Mukherji reviews Aesthetic Bind: 50 Years of Contemporary Art Five Exhibitions/ Curated by Geeta Kapur, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, 2014.

09 Jan 2019

CC shorts
Exhibition reviews

09 Jan 2019

Modern Love
The Barbican’s Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde parallels modern art with modern love. A review by Kathryn Lloyd.

27 Nov 2018

Spellbound
’Mummified Cats and Magical Thinking”. A piece by Virginia Whiles on the exhibition Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

27 Nov 2018

The Visual Economy of Picture Postcards
Amrita Gupta Singh on the visual and literary aspects of the turn of the 20^th century postcards in the exhibition Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai.

25 Sep 2018

Books received
A compilation of short book reviews.

27 Aug 2018 | Review

Commentary
On the recent arrest and detention of Shahidul Alam in Dhaka. Responses by artists, and an appeal by SAHMAT.

09 Aug 2018

Graphic Testimonies
In the wake of the recent release of the second volume of First Hand: Graphic Narratives from India, John Xaviers traces the history of graphic non-fiction as an emerging genre in India.

26 Jul 2018

Joining the dots
Meera Menezes explores Dreamtime and other myths in the art of Australia’s indigenous artists at NGMA, Delhi.

17 Jul 2018

Admitting the Popular
Paula SenguptaAn exhibition in Kolkata brings to the haloed portals of the Victoria Memorial Hall the microcosmos of printmaking in Chitpur with the exhibition 19th Century Swadeshi Art in Bengal.

23 May 2018 | Review

Many Visions, Many Versions: Art from Indigenous Communities in India
Book review by Shreya Chaudhuri.

15 May 2018

Between the Mundane and the Monumental
“The Baroda Narrative Style” reflects two artists Bhupen Khakhar and Nataraj Sharma whose paintings make a case for the subaltern. Georgina Maddox reviews the shows at Swaraj Art Archive and VAG.

25 Apr 2018

Class Crisis
Recent events at the School of Arts and Aesthetics reflects the shrinking space for liberal education in India. By Amrita Chakravarty

10 Apr 2018

Colour-stills of an Alternate Modernism
Nadia Nooreyezdan reviews the ongoing retrospective of Raghubir Singh’s work at The Met Breuer, New York.

21 Nov 2017

Arc, Silt, Dive
"Your work offers us a different way to relate to time: by historicizing but in a way that refuses containment by history." Sheba Chhachhi in conversation with Lata Mani on the subject of her book.

25 Oct 2017

Review
A new book on the Baroda Royal art collection and institutions foregrounds notions of individual agency as lying at the heart of an indigenous modernity, writes Parul Dave Mukherji.

11 Oct 2017

Review
In Laura El-Tantawy's exhibition In the Shadow of the Pyramids, the personal is the political as history intersects with memory. A review by Suryanandini Narain.

26 Sep 2017

FABRIK - On the Circulation of Data, Goods and People
Deepika Sorabjee writes on the efficacy of the essay-film as a travelling art form in her review of the post-Venice after-lives of FABRIK.

23 Aug 2017

An Archive of Memories/Memories of the Archive
Remembering Vivan Sundaram's site-specific installation at the Victoria Memorial, twenty years on - a review of an anthology of essays on Sundaram's History Project by Amrita Chakravarty.

23 Aug 2017

In Perspective: Modernism and Regionalism
Shreya ChaudhuriA review of Group 1890: India’s Indigenous Modernism & The Japan Foundation Asia Center Art Studies 03

22 Jun 2017

See-through exhibition of seven exhibitions
Through the metaphor of semi-transparency, John Xaviers reviews Interpositions: Interplaying the Repository curated by Roobina Karode at KNMA.

23 May 2017

Exceeding the private, entering the public
Paula SenguptaSeen through the early 20^th century works of four printmakers of Bengal at Graphic Prints, Galerie 88, Kolkata.

23 May 2017 | Review

T J Demos speaks to Gayatri Sinha
On the idea of the global and the apocalypse of migration in a shrinking world.

12 Apr 2017

A CC Report
The appointment of Anita Dube as curator of the fourth edition of the Kochi Muziris Biennale comes at a critical juncture in the history of the KMB.

04 Apr 2017

Letter from India
Virginia Whiles"The art observed on my recent journey throughout India reflects the polarisation of a country split economically and politically."

22 Mar 2017

Where there is no archive
S A KrishnanSarover Zaidi establishes a connection between Azadeh Akhlagi and Gauri Gill in the event of political trauma and the condition of the 'witness'.

21 Mar 2017

Learning from John Berger
Recalling a 1969 meeting with John Berger (1926-2017), Geeta Kapur commits a personal obituary to the influential Marxist art critic, his writing and his enduring relevance.

19 Jan 2017

1 among 100
One among the hundred artists at the Shanghai biennale curated by Raqs Media Collective, Verina Gfader presents a poetic and personal view.

15 Dec 2016

Thinking Tantra
Virginia Whiles who wrote on Tantric imagery first in 1971 visits Thinking Tantra at the Drawing Room, London, and analyses the different streams in this abstruse mode of abstraction.

15 Dec 2016

Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde: Sonata of Solitude
Bodhana and Raza Foundation collaborate to produce an in-depth new study on the practice of the early modernist. Shreya Chaudhuri reviews the volume.

22 Nov 2016

Experiencing the Experience House
Charu Maithani describes her immersive and interactive encounter with the works at Experience House at Khoj Studios, New Delhi.

18 Nov 2016

The Artful Life of R. Vijay
Shreya Chaudhuri tracks Annapurna Garimella in her reading of the artistic collaboration of Waswo. X Waswo and R. Vijay, and the expansion of the contemporary miniature.

24 Oct 2016 | Review

Allured
Shuddhabrata Sengupta's expansive open letter to an early boyhood influence, the digital artist, Ashok Ahuja. At Gallery Espace, October 8, 2016

24 Oct 2016

'Husain's Raj Visions of Empire and Nation' by Sumathi Ramaswamy
Shreya Chaudhuri18 Aug 2016 | Review

The Catalogue Raisonné as a Critical Form: Review of 'Arc, Silt, Dive: the Works of Sheba Chhachhi' edited by Kumkum Sangari
Saloni Mathur13 Jul 2016

Passages
Shanay Jhaveri reflects on film making in South Asia through the prism of Passages, his curatorial venture at the Dhaka Art Summit.

16 Jun 2016

'Painting and Photography at the Jaipur Court' edited by Giles Tillotson and Mrinalini Venkateswaran
Suryanandini Narain19 May 2016 | Review

Sites of Intervention in a City's Cultural Fabric: Public and Socially Engaged Art in Kolkata
Paula Sengupta in her essay, examines new kinds of engagement in art, which reflect on Kolkata's past and present histories.

21 Apr 2016

Ebrahim Alkazi: Directing Art
The Making of a Modern Indian Art World
Reviewed by Gayatri Sinha

20 Apr 2016

The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination
Ruchira Verma reviews the exhibition, setting the tone for the sequential history and visual narrative of Zoroastrianism and the Parsi community.

19 Apr 2016

An art movement to retain Venkatappa Art Gallery, the democratic public art space
The proposed takeover of Venkatappa Art Gallery by private interests and the rise of VAG Forum an artists’ protest initiative. The piece is contributed by Surekha, Sheela Gowda, Pushpamala N, Suresh Jayaram, Ayisha Abraham and others.

02 Apr 2016

Ecologising the ‘Human’
Ravi Agarwal photographer and director of Toxics Link, reflects on the Yamuna and the slew of issues that arise in the context of the Art of Living event on the river’s flood plains.

02 Apr 2016

Atoot-Dor : Unbroken Threads an exhibition of Banarasi brocade saris at home and in the World
Ridhi Khanna22 Mar 2016 | Review

Take An Object, curated by Cara Manes at MoMA, on view through February 28, reviewed by Gayatri Sinha.
13 Jan 2016 | Review

Announcing the Umrao Singh Sher-Gil grant for Photography by Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation
21 Dec 2015

The Empire Strikes Back?
Zehra Jumabhoy reviews ‘Artist & Empire: Facing Britain’s Imperial Past’ at London’s Tate Britain.

21 Dec 2015

As the India Art Fair descends on the subcontinent, Meera Menezes quizzes Neha Kirpal on its hits and misses
21 Dec 2015

"This magnificent show leads the viewer into seeing Indian fabric through a glass somewhat darkly."
Virginia Whiles reviews 'The Fabric of India' exhibition at the V&A Museum.

19 Nov 2015

A Paper Rebellion?
Urvashi Butalia writes on the recent meltdown within the Sahitya Akademi.

20 Oct 2015 | Essay

In the Name of the Goddess, Tapati Guha-Thakurta’s recent book, reviewed by Gayatri Sinha.
08 Oct 2015 | Review

Revisiting Beauty
Exhibition of photographs by JJ Valaya at Threshold Gallery.

21 Sep 2015

Krishna as Shrinathji
"Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Painting" turns the spotlight on the Pushtimarg sect

21 Sep 2015

Reflections on FRACTURE: Indian Textiles, New Directions at the Devi Art Foundation
Mayank Mansingh Kaul09 Mar 2015 | Essay