Everything we know about the upcoming India Art Fair 2023 in New Delhi

One of the more important art events of South Asia, the India Art Fair, New Delhi this year will take place between February 9-12 at the NSIC Exhibition ground. Led in partnership with BMW, the exhibition will present 85 exhibitors including 71 galleries and 14 institutions. Expected to be more ambitious than previous avatars. IAF 2023 is expected to have an expanded floorspace to showcase contemporary art and modern masters. There will also be an extended studio presenting the fair's Digital Artist in Residence program. The fair will be a meeting ground for collectors, curators, and art professionals, strengthening cultural dialogue and ties with the international art scene.

Jaya Asokan, Fair Director of India Art Fair said, “The scale and diversity of the fair in 2023 reflect the expansion of the contemporary and modern art market across India and South Asia, as
well as burgeoning interest from the international community. We’re particularly proud of all of our artists who are testing the boundaries of contemporary and traditional arts or digital innovation, with many coming from previously unexplored regions of India. We’re proud of the quality of work they’re producing and powerfully responding to our changing times.”

To celebrate design and creativity, the fair will host the launch of RADO’s classic DiaStar watch redesigned by Swiss designer Alfredo Haberli for its 60th anniversary. Art Buzz will support a dedicated Workshop Space for artist-led sessions and young collectors' masterclasses; DS Group and Kolkata Centre for Creativity will support the fair’s sustainability and inclusivity. 

Highlights:

Indian traditional art
Contemporary masters of traditional art from Worli, Gond, Madhubani, Pattachitra, Kalamkari, Bhil, and Chamba RUmal traditions will participate in the upcoming IAF 2023.

71 galleries in the fray
India Art Fair 2023 is set to include some of India’s most important contemporary art galleries presenting established names and promising young talents. Some noted names include the Vadehra Art Gallery, Gallery Espace, Nature Morte, DAG, Crayon Art Gallery, Dhoomimal Gallery, and others.

Solo presentations
Some names you can expect to see in this section are Jayashree Chakravarty, Avijit Dutta and Waswo X. Waswo. Mid-career artists, Anni Kumari and emerging artists Viraj Khanna and Digbijayee Khatua are also showing in this category.

International galleries
Galleria Continua will present works by Anish Kapoor, JR, and Osvaldo González; Marc Straus will feature Anne Samat; Bruno Art Group will present Andy Warhol; Saskia Fernando Gallery will show internationally renowned South Asian artists Jagath Weerasinghe and Chandraguptha Thenuwara; Grosvenor Gallery will shine a spotlight on Senaka Senanayake; and finally, Aicon will include Rasheed Araeen and Victor Ekpuk within its booth presentation.

Digital art
The fair’s digital residency hub will showcase artworks made by the three India Art Fair Digital Artists in Residence, all made on iPad Pro and in response to the theme ‘Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary’. Visual artist and illustrator, Mira Felicia Malhotra will highlight the oddities and idiosyncrasies of Indian family life in vibrant portraits of women titled Log Kya Kahenge; artist, poet, and writer Gaurav Ogale will invite audiences to explore the extraordinary biographies of ordinary people through an audio-visual book anthology series ‘Bestsellers’; and multidisciplinary artist Varun Desai will create an immersive projection room giving a glimpse of the future, one that fuses artificial intelligence and human consciousness. With an aim to widen participation, Today at Apple will offer hands-on sessions led by Creative Pros focusing on digital art skills on iPad Pro to unlock new styles and techniques to push attendees' creative expression. The Studio will also host special digital projects supported by the Serendipity Arts Foundation and The Gujral Foundation with video and tech-inspired artworks presented by contemporary artists Julien Segard and Payal Arya and Aditi Kulkarni respectively; along with digital animations and drawings by Shrimanti Saha in an interactive public project supported by Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA).

Posterzine
India Art Fair will publish an all-women led posterzine titled Fire in the Belly for the 2023 edition championing the voices of eight artists and creative powerhouses, including Anikesa Dhing, Aravani Art Project, Aqui Thami, Dhruvi Acharya, Meena Kandasamy, Rithika Pandey, Shilpa Gupta, and Zeenat Kulavoor, each sharing their dreams, hopes, prayers and wisdom for an equal world. From pain, pleasure, and mental health to sexuality, the caste system and the body, each poster page will be a blazing response to the theme ‘Fire in the Belly’, encouraging readers to participate in creating a new world order based on feminist optimism and the power of small actions in introducing lasting change.

Conversations 
A series of conversations and talks will be hosted at the IAF. The fair will travel beyond the NSIC ground with exhibitions and parallel programmes at multiple venues in Delhi.