Secular Practice: Recent Art from India

The work of Atul Dodiya, Sheela Gowda and Vivan Sundaram is presented as part of Secular Practice: Recent Art from India, an exhibition taking place at three Vancouver galleries in addition to the Contemporary Art Gallery and including the work of nine contemporary artists from India. Responding to the reality of living in a rapidly modernizing society, the work of the artists in the exhibition addresses issues ranging from freedom of expression, social justice, growing religious fundamentalism and widespread communal violence to sexuality, women's rights, the inequities of entrenched class and caste systems, the processes of history and memory, and the nature of art itself in these circumstances.

The other artists in the exhibition are Jayashree Chakravarty, Rummana Hussain, Bhupen Khakhar, Nalini Malani, Anand Patwardhan, and Pushpamala N. Participating galleries are the Charles H. Scott Gallery, Presentation House Gallery and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Secular Practice: Recent Art from India itself is one of a number of components of the project Moving Ideas: A Contemporary Cultural Dialogue with India organized by Hoopoe Curatorial. The project also includes the exhibition Dust on the Road: Canadian Artists in Dialogue with SAHMAT at the Roundhouse Community Centre, film presentations, lectures, performance, and literary events.

Supplanting a legacy of modernism and characterized by interdisciplinary cultural projects including performance, installation and video, Moving Ideas examines what many participants and observers of contemporary Indian culture describe as a powerful shift in the form and content of representation over the past dozen years. It is part of a four-year initiative of art and cultural exchange intended to create an awareness of issues shared, in particular, by artists in Canada and India organized by Hoopoe Curatorial.

Secular Practice: Recent Art from India is generously supported by the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation.