Earlier this year, Delhi-based Rohini Devasher became the first Indian to be recognised by Deutsche Bank as their 'Artist of the Year' for 2024. This led to her first major monographic exhibition in Europe, 'Borrowed Light', which opened in Berlin at the PalaisPopulaire in September and will be on display till early March. In her research-intensive practice, she "highlights her longstanding engagement with astronomy, where light plays a pivotal role. For Devasher, the key to exploring new cosmologies between the human and the non-human lies in examining the interplay between place, observer, and observation," states the exhibition note.
In another significant achievement, the seventh edition of the Jameel Prize for contemporary art and design went to Bengali artist Ohida Khandakar for her film and installation Dream Your Museum (2023). The work is currently being exhibited at the Victoria & Albert(V&A) Museum, London till mid-March.
Year-on-year, artists from the subcontinent have been recognised by international art foundations and museums for their practices. 2024 saw this being taken a notch further, especially for women artists, at different stages of their careers, who won laurels for the nuanced perspective and approach that they brought to their work.
For instance, Mumbai-based Prajakta Potnis, known for her interdisciplinary practice-spanning photography, painting, sculpture and installation-themed around transgression of boundaries and the passage of time, became the second recipient of the Loewe Foundation/ Studio Voltaire Award in July. "The award was started in 2021 with the intention of highlighting 'creative thinking and individuality within contemporary art practice' while also working 'to increase and strengthen equitable representation and access, and amplify artistic voices across class, race, gender, sexuality and disability," states a piece in Art News about the award.
Sree Goswami, whose gallery Project 88 represents Devasher, Khandakar and Potnis shared why this recognition is critical. "For our mid-career artists, these are definitive affirmations. It also allows them to develop their thought-provoking practice independently in a hyper-commercialised art world, where the space for critical thinking is constantly shrinking," she says.
The year was also bountiful in terms of representation at major exhibitions. For instance, Amol K. Patil, a conceptual and performance artist, who investigates the sound, social structures and architecture of Mumbai's chawls, showed his site-specific installation, Who is Invited in the City, at the 15th Gwangju Biennale-a global stage for dialogue around contemporary art.
