Art Mumbai - Art Without Walls: The Spirit of BDMI in Contemporary Practice

Dr. Pheroza Godrej is an art-historian and a Ph.D. in Ancient Indian Culture. She founded the Cymroza Art Gallery and authored various publications and curated highly acclaimed exhibitions for leading National and International Museums. She is Chairperson of the Museum Society of Mumbai; former President of the National Society of the Friends of the Trees for 17 years, President Emeritus since 2016. Dr. Godrej is on the Executive Board of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology (ATREE) and the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation; Director of Asia Society India Chapter; and a Trustee of Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum and the Sea Cadet Corp India. Pheroza is on the Board of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development International Advisory Council. She is an ardent promoter of the Cornelia Sorabji Programme, and supports the Cornelia Sorabji Scholarship at Somerville College, Oxford. She is a Member of the Advisory Council for the JCB Prize for Literature, and a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers & Commerce (RSA), U.K. The Asiatic Society of Mumbai conferred her with the Society’s Honorary Fellowship for her outstanding contribution in the field of art and culture. Dr. Godrej is the Chairperson of the Godrej Archives Council.

Ranjit Hoskote is a poet, cultural theorist and independent curator. His recent collections of poetry include Central Time (Penguin, 2014), Jonahwhale (Penguin, 2018), Hunchprose (Penguin, 2021), and Icelight (Wesleyan University Press, 2023). Hoskote has been a fellow of the International Writing Program, University of Iowa; associate fellow of Sarai-CSDS at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi; writer-in-residence at Villa Waldberta, Munich, and the Polish Institute, Berlin; and researcher-in-residence at BAK/ basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht. Hoskote curated India’s first-ever national pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2011) and was co-curator, with Okwui Enwezor and Hyunjin Kim, of the 7th Gwangju Biennale. He has served on the Jury of the Venice Biennale (2015), is a founding member of the Advisory Board of the Bergen Assembly, Norway, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Public Arts Trust of India (PATI) and on the Editorial Board of the Murty Classical Library of India, published by Harvard University Press. Hoskote is one of the six inaugural Fellows of the Georgetown Global Dialogues program, established in 2024 by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs at Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Owais Husain’s work explores identity, iconography, and urban mythology and its evolution from one generation to the next, illustrating his relationship with and abstraction of a more traditional Indian aesthetic. Whimsical references can be seen in his series To Speak is to Disappear, 2009, a set of delicate ink drawings on handmade Khadi paper of figures trying to communicate and connect to each other to no avail. In the painting, Sympathy vs. Empathy, 2014, a young boy and a Bengal tiger confront each other face to face, the boy appropriates the identity of the tiger with a mask while the tiger’s own face is hidden from the viewer. More complex and abstract are Husain’s Heart of Silence, 2015, a multi-media installation comprised of video, large suspended paper houses, light and reflection, and My Body, A Fleet of Ships, 2014, in which acrylic panels densely layered with photographic images and paintings surround fragments of terracotta figures. Both installations also incorporate poetry into the mixture of visual elements. Using film, photography, painting, sculpture, installation and poetry - in various combinations or on their own - Husain creates visually textured works that both reference his roots in a traditional Indian figurative style and embody his constant pursuit to evolve and contemporize that iconography.   Instagram : @owaisstudio Website : https://owaishusain.com

Anahita Uberoi is an actor, director and producer who has worked extensively in New York, Mumbai and Germany over the last 33 years . Anahita grew up in a family of theatre and film personalities. She spent large amounts of her childhood backstage where she learnt about the magic as well as the rigour of the performing arts. She trained at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York and went on to work as an assistant director on fifteen productions, both On Broadway as well as Off Broadway. She also worked as an assistant director to her mother, Padmashree Vijaya Mehta for the German production of Naga Mandala in Leipzig and Weimar. She has performed in and directed over thirty critically acclaimed productions spanning four decades and has conducted theatre workshops for adults, children as well as corporate houses in Mumbai, and other cities across India.  She was a creative consultant for BookMyShow and focussed on developing the theatre department. She was the Creative learning Director of Connections India – a youth theatre festival in association with the National Theatre in the UK which provided performing arts training by renowned theatre companies, directors and actors.  

Reema Desai Gehi is an arts writer, researcher, and cultural facilitator based in Mumbai. For over a decade, Reema has written on the arts and culture scene for the Mumbai Mirror, India Today and Hindustan Times. She has recently joined Art India — India’s longest-running art magazine — as its editor.Reema is an alumna of Cardiff University, UK, where she completed her Masters with a special focus on arts journalism.Her first book, ‘The Catalyst: Rudolf von Leyden and India’s Artistic Awakening’, traces the life and legacy of a seminal art critic, who was instrumental in shaping the careers of many artists belonging to the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group.