A journalist-turned-art-writer, Ankush Arora is interested in narratives and histories of South Asian modern and contemporary art, with a focus on diasporic movements of artists. In his recent writings, he has focused on the practices of two abstract artists from South Asia — Zarina Hashmi and Natvar Bhavsar — who settled down in New York, and responded, in their own ways, to encounters with a new life and culture.
He is interested in art-historical narratives of practices and movements associated with South Asian artists, particularly from the 19th and 20th centuries, who imbibed the influences of non-Indian art movements in their work.
Past projects include: catalogue essays for DAG’s recent exhibition ‘Primitivism and Modern Indian Art’ (Mumbai, New York; 2019-20); editing of research report on arts management sector in India (commissioned by SDA Bocconi Asia Center); and press release writing on the participating artists of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018. Previously, he worked at Akar Prakar, New Delhi, where he looked after physical and online programming, involving exhibitions and publications of Indian modernists, particularly from Bengal.
He has contributed essays and articles to Reuters, Architectural Digest, Firstpost, The Wire, and The Hindu.
(Featured image: Polish artist Goshka Macuga’s installation at Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018)
Long-Form Projects:
Catalogue essays, Primitivism and Modern Indian Art, DAG, 2019 – 20
Copy-editor and proofreader, Toying with Gandhi – Sculptures by Debanjan Roy, 2021, exhibition catalogue published by Akar Prakar
Copy-editor and proofreader, Sense and Sensation – Paintings in pen and ink by Ganesh Haloi, 2021, exhibition catalogue published by Akar Prakar
Copy-editor and proofreader, Translating Modernity – Sculptures by Prodosh Das Gupta, 2020, exhibition catalogue published by Akar Prakar
Copy-editor and proofreader, Memorialising Ganesh Pyne – Photographs and Photo-Collages by Veena Bhargava, 2020 (Mapin Publishing and Akar Prakar)
Report editor, Arts Management in India – Challenges in formal education for arts management in India (2019), commissioned by SDA Bocconi Asia Center
Press release writing on artists of Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2018-19
Reportage on the growing censorship of Bollywood films in the backdrop of a resurgent right-wing India, India: Censors under fire, Freemuse, 2016
Art reviews, essays and interviews (2013 – present):
FIRSTPOST (2019 onwards)
The more things change, the more they stay the same: A short story about art and NFTs
In new S.H. Raza biography, Yashodhara Dalmia humanises the iconic artist’s life and work
Rameshwar Broota’s unsettling visions of paranoias and vulnerabilities in our moment of reckoning
Remembering Zarina Hashmi: Simplicity and meditativeness of artist’s minimalist style are timeless
Phenomenal Nature: Mrinalini Mukherjee’s Met retrospective showcases wild, free-flowing sculptures
From conflict-ridden North East, eight artist re-imagine borders in subtle, ironic ways
Nasreen Mohamedi: Beyond the Line
An artist’s response to Sabarimala
THE WIRE (2019)
How do you revive a newspaper’s photo archive in present-day India?
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST INDIA (2019 onwards)
G R Iranna’s evocative installation stands as a symbol of unity in these tumultuous times
This exhibition memorialises Ganesh Pyne, one of the most revered artists of independent India
At Venice Biennale, there’s more to India than just Gandhi
Whitney Biennial takes a closer look at political and racial issues
Chicago Architecture Biennial interrogates historical narratives of built environment
THE HINDU (2019)
The line that unites two generation of artists
AKAR PRAKAR GALLERY, NEW DELHI (2019 onwards)
Cambodian contemporary art: In Conversation with Erin Gleeson
Dharmendra Prasad: In search of borderless utopia
Debasish Mukherjee: Fabric as memory
KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE 2018
Profiles of participating artists
REUTERS (2013 -2015)
Imaging Sri Lanka’s colonial past
Photographer Prabuddha Dasgupta’s homecoming
Baby steps for India art market, best yet to come
Glimpses of Indian Buddhist art
Photo Gallery – Impressions from the India Art Fair
The body as an art form in India
Inside is everything in Subodh Gupta show
A walk through the India Art Fair 2014
Delhi Art Gallery’s nude portrait exhibition draws protesters
Reliving ‘Aruna’s Story’ – on stage
Photo gallery: A walk through Mayawati’s Dalit Park
Shamshad Begum: A tribute to a voice long gone
Remembering Reshma, Pakistan’s ‘first lady’ of folk music
Revisiting Satyajit Ray through Nemai Ghosh’s lens
ARTDOSE (2019)
Ranbir Kaleka: Where the mind travels
Arpita Singh: A life in painting
India Art Fair: Beyond the Subcontinent
Pushpamala N: The Body Politic
MATTERS OF ART (2018)
The muted intensity of Farrokh Chothia’s Jazz Portraits
ART1ST (2018)
The Earthiness of Vipul Kumar’s Ceramic Sculptures
When art transcends human creativity
From India and the World, a gallery tour of masterpieces on 200-year-old freedom struggles
New art exhibition in Delhi introduces rare genre of colour field painting to art lovers
Interwoven narratives of Indian and Thai textiles
BOOK TALKS
Reuters (2013 – 2015)
Barkha Dutt on India’s ‘fault lines’ and personal reinvention
Being gay and ‘No One Else’ in India and the USA
Revisiting Bangladesh, 43 years after the independence war
Guns, war and a dove – Sri Lanka looks for a new life
Mahabharata retold, with a twist from writer Kiran Nagarkar
Ten years on, Chetan Bhagat says better prepared to face critics
Navtej Sarna on India’s Jerusalem connection
Rana Dasgupta on a ‘vastly under-imagined Delhi’
Reema Abbasi and a glimpse of Pakistan’s Hindu past
The Quint (2016)
How a travelogue uses familiar cinema and books to remember cities
Ankush Arora 