Gallery Espace

Gallery Espace, New Delhi, exhibits works, and represents artists, that aim to challenge
and provoke with an Indian aesthetic that raises universal questions. Artists have made the most of
the scope for exploration at Espace — from the very beginning. The gallery opened in 1989 with a
solo show by M F Husain, who also designed the gallery’s logo. By the early 1990s, Espace was and
continues to be, a springboard for innovative young artists like Subodh Gupta and Ashim Purkayastha.
It also took the lead in curated exhibitions: since the mid-1990s every presentation has been curated
by experts like the critic Gayatri Sinha and the columnist and author Madhu Jain.
Not only are the people and the work forward-looking, so are the media: Espace was among
the first in India to hold major shows of drawing and sculpture (1994 and 1995), thus stepping out
of the four walls of the conventional frame. In recent years the gallery has established a particular
strength in video art and installations.
To meet these challenges, the gallery itself has stepped out of four walls. It now inhabits
a two-floor, flexible, pedestrian-facing space in a lively and prestigious city location. This openness
and adaptability made possible this year’s path breaking show, “Conscious-Sub-Conscious”, in which
Manjunath Kamath drew and painted afresh on the gallery’s walls every day for a week, responding
via his work to members of the public as they wandered through this temporary “studio”. It also
enriched last year’s show marking 20 years of Gallery Espace, “Marvelous Reality”, which brought
together outstanding young Indian and international artists and drew the most enthusiastic press
reviews. The busy roster of recent shows includes solos of represented artists Ravi Agarwal, Rina
Banerjee, Nilima Sheikh, Chintan Upadhyay and Zarina.
Espace believes in project documentation. Each exhibition is complemented by a catalogue or
monograph, available at a bookstore within the gallery. Espace also believes it has a responsibility to
the community. Part of its educational outreach work was “Video Wednesdays”, a monthly interactive
experience during 2008-2009 in which curated selections of new video art were screened for the
public.
The gallery represents Indian art internationally. It has participated in the Asian
Contemporary Art Fair, New York (2007), Art Dubai (2007 and 2008), ShContemporary (2008),
ARCO-Madrid (2009) and the India Art Summit (2008, 2009 and 2011). Espace continues to strive to
sustain a dialogue with viewers, and between the art world and the art market.