The INDIA exhibition is spread among four venues west of downtown Houston, and in the Museum District: Silver Street Studios, Winter Street Studios, The Silos at Sawyer Yards, and the Asia Society Texas Center. Parallel to the exhibition, FotoFest staged the popular Meeting Place Portfolio Review for Artists. This 12-day event allowed over 450 artists to review their portfolios with 150 top curators, editors, publishers, gallery owners, and collectors. Spring Street Studios hosts FotoFest’s The Discoveries of the Meeting Place, a related exhibition, displaying particularly compelling work by ten artists selected from 2016’s Meeting Place.
Courtesy of the Artist
Nandini Valli Muthiah, "Asleep," from the series "Visitor," 2010
The FotoFest Biennial, an international platform for photographic and new media art, is known for discovering and presenting hot new talent from around the world. The Biennial is a citywide production, with Houston's leading art museums, art galleries, non-profit art spaces, universities and civic spaces all involved. This year’s festival theme is INDIA, with attendees coming from 34 countries, and artists from India and the global Indian diaspora representing the identities of their homeland.
Work by 47 artists explores gender and sexuality, land rights conflict, the environment, human settlement and migration, and caste and class divisions. The brilliant photography ranges from striking portraits to haunting urban scenes, gaudy celebrations, erotically charged moments, and poetic stillnesses. “The artists, all of Indian origin, are imagining and responding to what India means today in its myriad complexities, given its ancient culture and more recent emancipation from British colonialism,” says Biennial Lead Curator Sunil Gupta. “It is very exciting for FotoFest to be working with this remarkable range of artists,” adds Steven Evans, FotoFest Executive Director and Biennial Co-Curator. FotoFest 2018 is one of the largest exhibitions of contemporary photography by artists of Indian origin in the United States to date.
Courtesy of the Artist
Vicky Roy, "Ravi, Seven Years Old, Begging for a Living near Indian Institute of Technology Flyover, New Delhi," from the series "Street Dreams," 2005-2008
In addition to the exhibitions, the FotoFest 2018 Biennial began with a two-day INDIA Symposium with artist talks and tours; upcoming activities include a film program, presented with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, family-friendly activities, and culinary adventures. A hardcover book, published by FotoFest and Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam, containing artwork and essays, commemorates the 2018 INDIA Fotofest.
For more information, visit www.fotofest2018.art
