Artists

 

Aayojan School of Architecture

Established in 1999, Aayojan School of Architecture at Jaipur is the premier centre of architectural education in Rajasthan providing skills; knowledge and values that help prepare architects for the contemporary world of architectural design and the rapidly advancing building industry. Aayojan is promoted and managed by a SEDRAA – Society for Education Development & Research in Architecture and Art comprising mainly of Architects. The historic city of Jaipur, provides a strong architectural legacy and wisdom to Aayojan’s philosophy in education. The school is affiliated to the Rajasthan Technical University, Kota awarding Bachelor Degree (B.Arch) & Masters Degree (M.Arch) in Architecture.

 

Abin Design Studio \ Abin Chaudhuri

Abin Design Studio (ADS) began in 2005 under the leadership of architect, designer and entrepreneur Abin Chaudhuri. He graduated from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 1998. Having worked as the Creative Head for Lafarge and later as the Director for Adler & Associates, Abin went on to pursue Industrial Design at Domus Academy, Milan in 2005. ADS believes architecture is an artistic expression as far as it transcends its purely utilitarian, technical and rational realm and turns into a metaphoric expression of the lived world, human condition and context. Over the last decade, ADS has successfully completed several prestigious projects in the realms of architecture including landscaping, interior design and installations for Institutional, corporate, residential developments, hotels, villas and public spaces.

                                                        

Anagram Architects \ Vaibhav Dimri and Madhav Raman

Anagram Architects was established by Vaibhav Dimri and Madhav Raman in New Delhi in 2001. The partners have graduated from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. The firm’s practice is diverse and encompasses public infrastructure planning, urban design, architecture, furniture design and interior design. Through their work they attempt to enrich elemental modernity with intensive research into traditional as well as non-conventional practices, evolving culturally relevant, contextually responsive and resource efficient designs. Over the years the practice has garnered much critical acclaim including a nomination for the Aga Khan Award in 2010 and inclusion in the Wallpaper* Magazine’s “Architects Directory 2009”. For four years running (2014-17), they have been included in AD50, the Architectural Digest Magazine’s prestigious list of the 50 most influential South Asian designers. Its work has been premiered at the Architectural Review’s World Emerging Architecture Awards 2007, the Cityscape Architectural Awards 2008, 2010 & 2016, the Wienerberger Brick Awards 2010, the SAIE Bologna 2010, 2011 and 2012, the Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction 2011, Asia Pacific Design Awards 2012 and the International Design and Architecture Awards 2013. Anagram Architects has also featured in the International Architecture Biennale 2010 in Rotterdam and Biennial of Design (BIO23) 2012 held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

 

Anthill Design \ Riyaz Tayyabji

Based in Ahmedabad, Anthill design is a team based architectural studio that has been involved in building design, research and academics since 2005. They have built in diverse geographical and cultural contexts across the country, developing a design process that allows for the ‘character’ of each project to emerge in response to the particular qualities of place. Rooted primarily in the use of local natural materials, their practice believes that architecture involves the modification of the earth’s crust for human inhabitation and so should be done carefully.

 

Anuj Daga

Anuj Daga is a hybrid design thinker interested in engineering new ways of reading and intervening into the built environment. Trained as an architect from Mumbai (2008), he went on pursue his interests in History & Theory of Architecture as well as design research through the interdisciplinary Master of Environmental Design program at Yale School of Architecture (2014). He is the recipient of the National Award (awarded by Council of Architecture, India) and also the Charles Correa Gold Medal for his design thesis ‘Cinema for the Blind’. He was awarded the Kamla Raheja Research Fellowship 2009-10 where he undertook research on patterns of domesticity in Mumbai. Anuj has worked with several institutions including Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai, Collective Research Initiatives Trust (CRIT) – Mumbai, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – New York and Critical Art & Media Practices (CAMP) – Mumbai. He has keen interest in studying the visual culture in architecture and the way different visual media tie into contemporary architectural expression. He has been a consulting architect & strategist at the Godrej Innovation Centre, Mumbai. He is the Curatorial Assistant to Riyas Komu for the visual arts project “Young Subcontinent” since first organized by Serendipity Arts Trust in Goa in 2016. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the School of Environment & Architecture, Mumbai.

 

Architecture Brio \ Shefali Balwani, Robert Verrijt

Architecture Brio is co-founded by Shefali Balwani and Robert Verrijt in 2006. Shefali completed her degree at the School of Architecture C.E.P.T in Ahmedabad. Before starting her own practice, she worked with Rahul Mehrotra Associates in Mumbai and the office of Channa Daswatte in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Robert is from the Netherlands where he received his Masters in Architecture from the TUDelft. After working briefly in the Netherlands, he moved to Sri Lanka, where he joined the office of Channa Daswatte and got an opportunity to get an insider’s perspective on the work of Geoffrey Bawa. The practice of Architecture Brio actively engages with research and seeks collaborations with institutes and organisations. With Billionbricks, an NGO committed to eradicate homelessness, they set up a dedicated studio called BB-Studio. The innovation design studio consults with communities, NGOs and governments to provide scalable high-quality buildings and infrastructure solutions. As part of the Bandra Collective, the firm is involved with research and design of public space in the city. Over years, Architecture Brio’s work field spans the vast variety of cultures, climates and landscapes across the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia. The firm has won several national and international awards such as the Zumtobel Group Award, the AD-50 Awards, and the JKC Architect of the Year Awards.

 

Bhagwati Prasad

Bhagwati Prasad is an artist working in performance, sculpture, video, graphics and research. He is the author of the graphic book, The Water Cookbook (2010). He started researching popular culture, media life and histories in Delhi, which resulted in him co-authoring Tinker Solder Tap (2009), a graphic novel on the history of media piracy in Delhi. His current project In IFA Grant 2015-16 titled ‘Auzaron ki Chuppi aur Kolahal’. He has been part of various experimental art contexts and spaces, including Sarai Reader 09: The Exhibition (2012-13), of which he was also the technical director. He was interlocutor for the 2012 and 2013 editions of City as Studio, an annual artist residency-cum-studio programme of Sarai-CSDS, Delhi. During his three-month residency at AIR Antwerp, Belgium (2013), he created a mixed media installation consisting of video, drawing, installations, sculpture and performance that was presented at AIR.

 

The Busride Design Studio \ Zameer Basrai

The Busride is an independent design studio specializing in the design and creation of built environments, both temporary and permanent. Their work spans across hospitality and entertainment venues, to film and production environments, and from exhibitions and installations, to institutional environments. They are a small team of architectural, interior, graphic, exhibition and industrial designers, who work from the micro to the macro; across disciplines. Zameer Basrai is co-founder of The Busride Design studio. He has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from CEPT, Ahmedabad, India and a SM Archs. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

 

Dhruv Jani

Dhruv Jani is the author at and co-founder of a collaborative game studio called Oleomingus, where he works with Sushant Chakraborty. Oleomingus has been creating a sprawling narrative experiment called ‘Somewhere’, which is an anthology of stories about the search for a mythical city called Kayamgadh, and which populates a fictional History that informs all of their other works. They practice at the intersection of post-colonial literature, speculative architecture and games creating stories that seek to understand how spaces, histories and languages respond when expressed within interactive mediums. Dhruv is the recipient of an arts practice grant from the India Foundation for the Arts. The work of Oleomingus is currently being supported by The Irregular Corporation. Dhruv has been an artist-in-residence at Khoj International Arts association in Delhi. He has also created, taught and exhibited games at CONA and SEA in Mumbai, SIDE at Pearl Academy in Jaipur and at Sketchup in Denver. Over the past two years the work of Oleomingus has been featured and discussed in several international videogame journals including Kill Screen’s Emergent series, Rock Paper Shotgun, IGN global, PC gamer and Intel’s IQ display.

 

DRONAH

Development and Research Organisation for Nature, Arts and Heritage is an interdisciplinary organisation consisting of highly motivated professionals from various fields who share a vision for a better quality of life – one that is sustainable, environmentally sensitive and draws on the contemporary without foregoing the strength of the traditional. Its aim is to actively promote sustainable development through conservation, utilisation of traditional practices and modern technologies, knowledge sharing and mutual interaction. The organisation is focused on conservation and development of the built heritage; environment; and art and craft with involvement of local community. It is also actively involved in documentation and educational activities. Headed by Dr. Shikha Jain, Dronah is one of the most respected habitat conservation practices in India and are involved with several projects across the country commissioned by various government and non-government agencies.

 

Gigi Scaria

Born in 1973 in Kothanalloor in Kerala, India, Gigi Scaria completed his Bachelor’s degree at the College of Fine Arts in Trivandrum. In 1995, he moved to Delhi where he completed a Master’s degree at Jamia Milia Islamia University and began his artistic career as an illustrator of children’s books and a teacher at an experimental school.  Scaria’s artistic repertoire includes paintings, photography, installation, sculpture and especially video art, of which he is a pioneer in India. His work is exemplary of what Rosalind Krauss has hailed as the post-medium condition. His art has been exhibited across India and the globe, including numerous solo shows.  In 2010, Scaria participated in the West Heavens project in Shanghai, the first major artistic collaboration between artists from China and India. In 2011, he represented India along with four others in the 54th Venice Biennale in a project titled ‘Everyone Agrees: It’s About to Explode.’  He was also the 2012 University of Melbourne Macgeorge Fellow with a major solo show at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne. Iconic Interruptions is the exhibition of his recent works to be shown in an American university.

M. Pravat

Pravat completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S. University, Baroda, in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Pravat has participated in several solo and group exhibitions. Some of these include ‘In-Depth’, New Delhi, in 2007; ‘Team Unteamed-11’, New Delhi, in 2007; ‘Instilling Life’ at Hacienda Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2007; ‘Art and Soul’, Mumbai, in 2007; ‘Theatre of the Absurd’, New Delhi, in 2006; ‘Full Circle’ organized by Art Konsult at Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, in 2006; ‘Transgress’ at Priyasi Gallery of Contemporary Art, Mumbai, in 2005; ‘Generation To and Fro’ at Kaleidoscope Art Gallery, Baroda, in 2005; and ‘Positive Vision’ at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, in 2003.

 

M/s. Prabhakar B Bhagwat

For over four decades now, the firm leads in the country with a distinguished portfolio of projects in landscape design, environmental planning, master planning and architecture. Prof. Bhagwat established the first landscape programme at Kharagpur in the 1950s. He also led for a short period the programme at Delhi in the 1970s and then established the programme at Ahmedabad in the 1980s. He is the founder of the professional body of landscape architects in India (ISOLA). The firm continues this tradition by investing significant energy in research, academics and outreach programmes that include publications, lectures and exhibitions. It is anchored on the principles of uncompromising ethics, intense design processes, pursuit of knowledge, and commitment to outstanding realization of the design work undertaken. With offices in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, the firm has commissions of varying scales and typologies across the country.

 

Mad(e) in Mumbai \ Kalpit Ashar & Mayuri Sisodia

Mad(e) In Mumbai, founded by Kalpit Ashar & Mayuri Sisodia is a design practice involved with the discipline of Architecture and Urban Design. The mission of the studio lies in transforming every day mundaneness of our cities into holistic and fulfilling experience through the medium of design. The Studio has received Social Innovator’s Award for the year 2016 from Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Ministry of External Affairs and NITI Aayog. The studio has won many national & international competitions that include Flood resilient housing competition organised by ISET & Rethinking Kalanagar Traffic Junction by BMW Guggenheim Lab. Kalpit has graduated from IAAC, Barcelona and Mayuri from Bartlett institute for Architecture, London. She has received the Charles Wallace Trust India Award for Arts & Heritage Conservation and has also displayed her work at Cities Methodologies Exhibition organised by Urban Lab at Slade School of Fine Art, London.

 

Mancini \ Bharath Ram, Niels Schoenfelder

Based in Chennai, Mancini enterprises was founded in 2004. It offers comprehensive design services in the fields of urban planning, architecture, interiors, landscape, furniture and lighting design. The firm has completed several prestigious projects across the country and abroad.

 

Milind Mahale

Milind completed his architecture studies from Mumbai University, after which he worked for 6 years at an Industrial Architectural firm and then at a Retail design firm. This gave him a perspective towards designing macro as well as micro scale. Having developed an affinity towards product designing, Milind travelled to Germany to pursue M. Des. in product design at State Academy of Art and Design Stuttgart. The experience gave him insights into materials, tectonics and details that go behind designing a product. Back in Mumbai, working as product designer, he has strong inclination and ability in the process of making of things.

 

Mark Prime

Mark Prime is a contemporary artist. Based in India for the last decade, his interest in light, and its attributes, have combined with an affinity for minimalism and geometric abstraction. Resulting works have been realised in a wide range of media including laser installations, sculpture, photography, and, more recently, painting. The artist is an accomplished musician, and rhythm, repetition and synchronised patterns are concepts that continually inform his practice. Prime has had solo exhibitions at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai (2016) and Nature Morte, Berlin (2013), as well as displaying in group contexts. He is the founder of one of India’s leading exhibition design companies in the region, responsible for some of the most ambitious exhibitions staged in recent times.

 

Mathew & Ghosh \ Soumitro Ghosh & Nisha Mathew

Based in Bengaluru, Mathew and Ghosh is an architectural firm jointly headed by Nisha Mathew and Soumitro Ghosh. Both of them graduated from CEPT, Ahmedabad.  The duo believes that the built and unbuilt structure must reveal relationships between human and nature and between human and human. Through their work they strive to introspect and build critical architecture that is rooted in its physio-social context. Their portfolio includes projects across residential, commercial, industrial and public spaces. Over the years, the firm has participated in several exhibitions and been awarded with multiple recognitions for their work including the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award 2007, World Architecture Community Award 2013, A+D & CERA Architecture Award, Nominations for Iakov Chernikhov International Foundation Award Moscow 2012, Borromini International Award for Young Architects, Rome, 2001 etc. The firm’s work has been also published extensively in national and international architecture magazines.

 

Parul Gupta

Parul Gupta graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2011 with MA in Fine Art. Prior to that she was a self-taught painter. A shift from painting to drawing happened when she became receptive towards her surroundings. Initially, things which could go unnoticed became her inspiration and then part of her work – whether using fallen hair strands as a medium to define line or using the scratches – an empty pen leaves on the paper. Another major turn in her practice came in 2012 with her participation in Sarai Reader 09 at Devi Art Foundation, curated by RAQS media collective. Her project there was site specific and process based. It was there that she began to follow a certain “line of thought” in her work, opening an inquiry into “what happens when a line leaves paper and enters space”. From there onwards, she has been continuously exploring drawing in space as a form of architectural intervention and spatial exploration as site specific, temporary, ephemeral installations based on the language of line. Her solo shows include: 2016: “Let’s Proceed in Parts”, Institute Cervantes, 11th November – 15th January, New Delhi, India; 2015: Phenomenology of Perception, 5th August – 15th September, Exhibit320 Gallery, Delhi, India; 2014: Space Phrases, Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai, India; 2012: Drawing the Line, 1st April – 6th April, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India

 

Prasad Khanolkar

Prasad Khanolkar currently works an Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT-Guwahati. He is also a research member of the Collective Research Initiatives Trust-Mumbai. His educational background is in architecture, planning, geography, and South Asian studies and he is primarily interested in researching and writing about cities in new ways.

 

Randhir Singh

Randhir Singh is an architectural photographer based in New Delhi, India. He studied architecture and spent close to 15 years working at a number of design firms in New York City. It was during this time that Randhir started to photograph professionally building on his many years of design experience. His background in architecture and design has been invaluable in understanding buildings and space. Over the last few years, he has worked with a wide range of architects, developers and hotels and was awarded Best Interior Photography at the Trends Awards in Mumbai in 2015. Aside from his commercial work, Randhir has an art practice exploring ideas in architecture and urbanism. He has collaborated with Seher Shah on “The Lightness of Mass” at Green Art Gallery in Dubai and “Of Absence and Weight” at Nature Morte in Delhi. His series, titled Water Towers, was shown at the Pondy Photo Festival 2016. A selection of his photographs of the Najafgargh and Barapullah drains in Delhi were included in the Yamuna River Project book and exhibition.

 

Raqs Media Collective \ Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi & Shuddhabrata Sengupta

Raqs Media Collective follows its self-declared imperative of ‘kinetic contemplation’ to produce a trajectory that is restless in its forms and methods, yet concise with the infra procedures that it invents. The collective makes contemporary art, edits books, curates exhibitions, and stages situations. It has collaborated with architects, computer programmers, writers, curators, and theatre directors, and has made films. It co-founded Sarai—the inter-disciplinary and incubatory space at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi—in 2001, where it initiated processes that have left deep impact on contemporary culture in India.

 

Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum

The Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum is one of the premier palace museums in India, with buildings and collections of national importance, collected and commissioned over the centuries by the Kachhwaha rulers of Amber and Jaipur. The Museum began during the reign of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II in 1952, when the Silehkhana and an Art Gallery were opened to the public. In 1959, a Textile and Costume gallery was added, and the Museum was formally named the Maharaja of Jaipur Museum. In 1972, after the death of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II, his son and successor Brigadier Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh reorganised the museum to expand the collections and buildings, and renamed the Museum in honour of his father.

 

Samir Raut

Samir Raut’s studio ‘eight-twenty-three’ is an inter-disciplinary design studio co-founded by him and his classmate Siddhesh Kadam. He refers to his work ‘not only as a practice, but a collaboration of ideas, ideals and aspirations towards the pursuit of happiness’. Samir has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Mumbai and a master’s degree in design from the college of fine arts, UNSW, Sydney. As the core of the studio always remained spatial and form based explorations, the studio’s work includes spatial design, visual arts and architecture. More recently Samir is interested in to observing and exploring the relationship between the extraordinary and the mundane.

 

Seher Shah

Trained in both art and architecture, Seher Shah simultaneously evokes both these traditions of drawing in her artistic practice, using a personal and rigorous formalism to trouble the otherwise rational language of architectural drawing. Shah first deconstructs an architectural edifice into it’s constituent elements and then deploys this idiosyncratic lexicon of abstracted fragments poetically, constructing new words and sentences driven not by a need for building viable structures but by imagination, intuition and material exploration.  Her work has been exhibited at several international institutions including the Centre Pompidou, The Museum of Modern Art, Nasher Museum, Utah Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, House of World Cultures, AMOA-Art House, The Jones Center, Glasgow Print Studio, Queens Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum and the Kiran Nader Museum of Art amongst others. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Devi Art Foundation, Deutsche Bank Art Contemporary, the Progressive Art collection, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Foundation, Vienna, Austria), amongst others.

 

sP+a \ Sameep Padora

Sameep Padora completed his undergraduate studies in Mumbai in 1996 followed by post-graduate studies at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University in 2005. He is the principal architect and founder of Mumbai based studio, sP+a (Sameep Padora & Associates) as well as Director of sPare, a research initiative looking at issues of urbanization & architecture in India. He is also one of the founding members of the Bandra Collective, an organization of architects involved with the design of public spaces in Mumbai. His practice has received numerous awards including Wallpaper Magazine’s award for single-family house of the year, the WAN 21 for 21 Award for Emerging International Practices and the MARMOMACC award for Architecture in Stone. His studio’s work has also received commendations at the AR Emerging Architecture Awards and has been nominated for the BSI Swiss Architecture Award.  In 2017 sP+a won two prestigious international competitions, for the National War Museum at India Gate in Delhi and the Maharashtra Nature Park in Mumbai. Sameep is also a member of academic councils for a number of architectural schools in the country and is a member of the National Technical Committee of Habitat for Humanity, India.

 

Samira Rathod Design Atelier \ Samira Rathod

Samira Rathod’s practice has largely been around material exploration and experimenting with ways of assembling things together. She explores possibilities of inhabiting otherwise unusual objects and spaces. SRDA was established as an architectural and interior practice in 2000. Having begun with a small farm house, and an avant-garde portfolio of furniture, SRDA is today commissioned with large-scale architectural and interior design projects, across the country and is also the winner of several national awards, with a presence in both international and national publications. Apart from design it also undertakes and promotes research and documentation work.

 

Sir JJ College of Architecture \ Prof. Mustansir Dalvi

The Sir JJ School of Architecture is the oldest architectural institution in India. In the last hundred years, the college has consistently excelled and has enhanced its reputation by having some very distinguished alumni including architects Padmashri Achyut Kanvinde and Padmashri Balkrishna Doshi. In many ways, the college has set the tone of architectural education and practice in the country.

Professor Mustansir Dalvi from the Sir JJ College of Architecture is an eminent architectural academic based in Mumbai. He has written several books on architecture and has also curated architectural exhibition. He is a prolific translator of Urdu, a poet and writes regular columns for various news journals on architecture, history and urbanism.

 

Teja Gavankar

Teja Gavankar received a Bachelors in Visual Art from Bandra School of Art and Master’s in Visual Arts in Painting from the School of Fine Arts in Baroda. She also holds a certificate in Indian Aesthetics from University of Mumbai. Gavankar lives and works in Mumbai and is mainly interested in drawings to make space. Teja’s interest is in subverting mundane spaces by adding a new perception to existing materials or situations.  She has received ‘Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation’ support for International (India- Quebec) Residency at ‘The Darling Foundry’, Montreal, Canada, Sep-Nov2014. She has been a part of Khoj peers share’ program at ‘Khoj international artist association’, Delhi. She was awarded the ‘Nasreen Mohamedi’ award in MVA Display, M.S.U. Baroda, India.2014. She has been part of several group shows including the ‘Young Subcontinents’ in ‘Serendipity Art Festival’ in Goa in Dec 2016. She has recently shown her work at the ‘Optica center for contemporary art’ in Montreal.

 

The Urban Project \ Dushyant Asher

Dushyant Asher is the co-Founder and principal architect at The Urban Project. As an architect and urbanist, he is interested in developing spatial tools that structure complex urban strategies. He has extensive professional experience in architecture and urbanism in India and Germany. Prior to founding The Urban Project, he has worked with B.V. Doshi on a range of projects including mass housing, public and private buildings and urban planning. He holds a masters in Advanced Architecture Design from SAC, Germany. He is also an active academic contributor in many architecture and design schools of Mumbai.

 

Vikas Dilawari

Vikas Dilawari is a conservation architect with more than two decades of experience exclusively in the heritage conservation. He was the Head of Department of Conservation at KRVIA Mumbai. Vikas Dilawari was instrumental in INTACH Mumbai chapters’ decision to list the CST station as World Heritage Site in 2004. Several of his projects have received national and international recognition. One of the significant accolades Dilawari has received is for the restoration of Dr Bhau Daji lad Museum in Mumbai. The extensive restoration project earned the architect a UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Excellence in 2005. Vikas Dilawari was a member of Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee 2008-2011 and board of governor for the MMR Heritage Conservation Society (2008-2011). He has successfully executed several conservation projects in last two decades ranging from singular monuments to the residential architecture. Vikas Dilawari was the lead architect in the renovation and restoration of Durbar Hall in Ernakulam (Kochi, Kerala).

 

Vishal K Dar

Vishal K Dar (b. 1976) is a Gurgaon (India) based artist/architect. Dar uses satire and scale to address deeper personal issues. Dar’s art practice is diverse in terms of medium, where transformations and the nocturne are some of the more visible themes. Through place-making, he instils a sense of dreamlike quality in his works.