One of the most celebrated contemporary Indian artists, Atul Dodiya will be in conversation with his long-time friend and gallerist, Shireen Gandhy of Chemould Prescott Road, sharing anecdotes and lessons which have formed his extraordinary life and journey as an artist. This will be the first time an Indian artist will be the focus of the prestigious BMW Art Talk at the fair.

Atul Dodiya is one of India’s most distinguished artists. His works narrate as much about the history of art and the socio-political climate of India as they are enmeshed in autobiography. Dodiya grew up in a middle-class Gujarati home in Ghatkopar, Mumbai. He trained at the Sir JJ School of Art and received acclaim early in his career for his paintings inspired by figurative artists such as Bhupen Khakhar, Sudhir Patwardhan, and Gieve Patel. He strengthened his unique vocabulary informed by French and Gujarati literature, Euro-American masters and modernists, global cinema, and popular culture while studying at the École des Beaux-Arts (1991-2). Through his paintings and assemblages, Atul Dodiya engages with both political and art history in a way that entwines global /public memory and local/personal experience. In his most recent series of paintings Dodiya appropriates the images and styles of famous artworks. By doing this he pays homage to his influences, but also ‘borrows’ their identities through a kind of painting role-play: copying becomes a form of ‘channelling’ or re-enactment, weaving the master’s identities and ideas to Dodiya’s own (and vice versa).

Dodiya has had more than 32 solo shows worldwide, including his first solo exhibition at Chemould Prescott Road, Vadehra Art Gallery, Galerie Templon, Brussels, Nature Morte, Berlin,  Bose Pacia, New York, among others, as well as mid-career retrospectives at the  Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati (2013); Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid (2002), and the Japan Foundation Asia Centre, Tokyo (2001). Major survey shows of his work have been held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (2013) and Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2014). He has participated in the India Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale (2019); 1st Kochi–Muziris Biennale (2012); 7th Asia Pacific Triennale, Brisbane (2012); Biennale Jogja XI (2011); 3rd  Moscow Biennale (2009); 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008); Documenta12 (2007); 51st Venice Biennal (2005); and the 1st Yokohoma Triennal (2001). His work is included in several prominent collections. The artist lives and works in Mumbai, India.

Shireen Gandhy is the gallerist at one of Mumbai’s oldest commercial art spaces, Chemould Prescott Road. Founded by her parents Kekoo and Khorshed Gandhy, Shireen joined her parents in 1988, and added a new dynamism to its programme by spearheading a particular focus on young emerging artists with an experimental and interdisciplinary approach to practice and media. The artists represented within the stable of the gallery represent the very contemporary nature of the nation as it stands today. The gallery remains relevant with a robust contemporary programme and a roster of artists whose work is at the forefront of both the national and international art scene.