This coming week, NYC will become privy to two dozen visual artists, who trace their roots to the India subcontinent, explore themes of cultural dislocation, memory, exile, and spiritual inheritances – all implicit in the word “Diaspora” – as part of the 7th annual Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art, presented by the Indo-American Arts Council, in collaboration with New York’s prestigious Guild Gallery. Curated by Vijay Kumar - assisted by IAAC Exhibitions Director Amina Ahmed - the exhibition is a mix of painting, drawing and prints, photographs, C-prints, photo montages and videos, and sculpture and installation. “The artists confront issues of sexuality, terror, disease, and multiple identities to weave together existence in a globalized context,” says Kumar. “While subject matter is often drawn from the country of origin, many of the aesthetic values and political concerns stem from the artists’ new-found situations. The result deserves a new ‘ism,’ a new journey to an old destination.” A series of events are planned throughout the exhibition.

Don’t know about you, but when I hear IAAC and “Events” in the same sentence, I become quite simply elated! And this is no exception, with a wonderful series of parties and fun happenings centered around the exhibition. The opening reception will be on August 3rd at the Guild Gallery, located at 45 West 21st Street in NYC, between the hours of 6 and 8 PM. Expect fun and extraordinary mingling there.

But the event I am truly excited to attend is on August 12th when our beloved guest blogger - and the wonderful actress of ‘Little Zizou’, a touching film I can never say too much about! - Zenobia Shroff will perform her ‘Exotic Observations’, a comic monologue on her personal experiences as an immigrant and an actress in New York City, with a special emphasis on the South Asian perspective. If you have been keeping up with Zen’s wonderful column on The Ajnabee, you know she is super-funny and having had a personal insight into this particular piece, I have to say it had me giggling live on the platform of the 1 train, at rush hour. Needless to say, I forgot to thank Zen for the seat my seemingly insane behavior got me that day…

Anyway, this One-Woman Show will happen on the 12th, at the Guild Gallery, between the hours 7 and 9 PM and to RSVP - there is a suggested donation of $10 for the evening - email .

The final evening of the exhibition will be on August 24th, at the same venue, between 6 and 8 PM and will feature a book launch and panel discussion for artist printmaker Krishna Reddy.

Below I have included the names of all the artists featured, and by clicking on each name you will be able toget more info about each one. See you at the exhibition!! And to support Zen, of course!

Jeet Aulakh, Samanta Batra Mehta, Nandini Chirimar, Ruby Chishti, Pritika Chowdhry, Neil Chowdhury, Erum Chughtai, Anujan Ezhikode, Reeta Gidwani- Karmarkar, Nidhi Jalan, Shaurya Kumar, Haresh Lalvani, Obaidullah Mamoon,Chetan Mangat, Urmila Mohan, Avani Patel, Pinku Roy-Bari,
Talha Rathore, Rasika Reddy, Satyakam Saha, Sheena Sood, Anjali Srinivasan, Roshani Thakore, Yetish Yetish.

All images courtesy of the IAAC