The Indo-American Arts Council and The Guild, NY present the works of 16 artists of Indian origin who live and work in the United States.

The exhibition, Erasing Borders: Passport to Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora explores the contributions of artists whose origins can be traced to the Indian Subcontinent. This will be IAAC's 3rd annual Erasing Borders exhibition. The first, 2004 Erasing Borders Exhibition, curated by Sundaram Tagore, was the first to focus solely on Indian Diaspora artists. Due to its large success, the IAAC is making it an annual exhibition. The last exhibition, held in 2006, was curated by Vijay Kumar.

20 million people of Indian origin shifted countries in 20th and 21st centuries. Implicit in the term Diaspora are the concepts of change and adaptation. Cultural dislocation often produces unexpected and powerful results. Subject matter is often drawn from the country of origin, while many of the aesthetic values and political concerns come from the artists' newfound situations.

Many Indian artists went abroad after India's independence from British rule. These artists grappled with dual aesthetic concerns (modernity versus tradition), and with the complex issue of identity. The Diaspora artists had to create an authentic artistic language possessing Indian aesthetic components in order to be taken seriously by critics, as well as reconcile the issues associated with being minorities. Today's Diaspora artists are scattered across the country and more socio-economically and religiously diverse than their predecessors. These artists are working to make themselves heard in an art world that is at once more competitive and more receptive to non-Western art than ever before.
The artists in this exhibition will meld Indian and Western colors and forms in many media, namely painting, sculpture, and photography. They will also grapple with diverse subject matter, including: AIDS, poverty, identity as a South Asian living in the post-9/11 world, in addition to their religious, sexual, and ethnic identities.

In the words of our curator Vijay Kumar, “Suddenly I find myself surrounded by New Delhi’s art bazaars, or art markets or supermarkets….of Visual Art. Gallery after gallery, with opening nights where they serve hard liquor and fancy hor d’oeuvres, this is a high time in the Indian Contemporary Art market. Where one finds dealers buyers and investors dancing the intricate dance of buying and selling Contemporary Art, and artists with cell phones stuck to their ears. I am thinking about our little show, ‘Erasing Borders’, showing works from a small Diaspora artist group living in the United States. Whether our art has any effect on what’s going on in Indian art today or not, we are telling our stories through our talents”

The Indo-American Arts Council is located at 146 west 29th street, suite 7R3, New York, NY 10001. For further information please call 212 594 3685, or visit