We are delighted to announce the eighth annual Asia Arts Game Changer Awards India, where we continue Asia Society's tradition of recognising and fostering brilliance in contemporary Asian art. Co-chaired by the esteemed Pheroza Godrej, Sangita Jindal, Kiran Nadar and Radhika Chopra, the Asia Arts Game Changer Awards return to bring together major art collectors, artists, gallerists, curators and dignitaries from across South Asia, along with Asia Society trustees and patrons.

Since their beginning in 2017, these awards have changed in form to accommodate evolving ideals of scholarship and innovation. The awards were first instituted by Asia Society India Centre and the Asia Society Museum as an extension of our commitment to contemporary art. In the eight years since, this tradition of attention to art, scholarship and community has taken on a life of its own. The awards are a landmark invite-only initiative in South Asia that cast a global spotlight on the best of contemporary art practice in the region, while also continuing to build a platform for our audience to find community and connection. 

To pay tribute to artists and art collectives who have made indelible impacts on the field of art with their bodies of work in India, we have been presenting the Asia Arts Vanguard and Asia Arts Future awards, which respectively recognise artists that have forged and are forging new paths in Indian visual culture. This year, we are pleased to announce a new category: the Asia Arts Pathbreaker Award, which honours a groundbreaking mid-career artist or collective from India. 

As the only Asia Society centre operating in South Asia, the awards have sharpened in focus and depth to honour contemporary artists of the South Asian region. As part of this ongoing effort, the Asia Arts Future Award (International) has transformed in recent years to honour artists from the subcontinent, previously paying tribute to artists from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. In 2024, we turn our lens to Nepal with the guidance of our arts committee and guest advisors Nayantara Gurung Kakshapati (co-founder and current artistic director of photo.circle, Nepal Picture Library and Photo Kathmandu) and Nada Raza (director of Alserkal Arts Foundation and founding artistic director of the Ishara Art Foundation).

These awards are rooted in a love for art, community and the way that art helps us to interpret and express our stories — Indian stories, South Asian stories, Asian stories. Artists and art collectives who have been recognised at previous iterations of the Asia Arts Game Changer Awards India include Abir Karmakar, the late Akbar Padamsee, Arpita Singh, Benitha Perciyal, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Gidree Bawlee Foundation for the Arts, Hamra Abbas, Himmat Shah, Jasmine Joseph Nilani, Jyoti Bhatt, Kochi Biennale Foundation, Krishen Khanna, Nilima Sheikh, Prabhakar Pachpute, Sohrab Hura, Sumakshi Singh, Sun Xun, teamLab, Tiffany Chung, Varunika Saraf, Vibha Galhotra, the late Vivan Sundaram, and Yang Yongliang.

Watch this space for more updates or follow us on our social media handles to keep up with the awards and our other work at Asia Society India Centre.

HONOREES

Asia Arts Vanguard Award 2024

Born in 1939 in Faridpur, Bengal, Jogen Chowdhury studied at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata from 1955-60, followed by a stint at L'Ecole Nationale Superior des Beax-Arts, Paris in 1965-57 on a French Government Scholarship. A student of Prodosh Das Gupta, Chowdhury worked in the expressionist style of figuration in his early years. Chowdhury interprets the human form through the x-ray vision of his creativity: attenuated, exaggerated, fragmented, reconfigured, and rephrased. For Chowdhury, the body has to communicate in silence. Often placing his figures against a vacant background, he does not appropriate the specificity of place or environment; instead, he transfers feelings of anguish on to his figures through gestural mark-making.

He has been awarded the Madhya Pradesh government’s Kalidas Samman, and was honoured at the 2nd Havana Biennale.

His work has been displayed internationally at the 15th São Paulo Biennale; the International Exhibition, Cagnes–sur–Mer; Indian Painters, Nogent le Rotrou, France; Gajah Gallery, Singapore; Foundation for Indian Artists (FIA), Amsterdam; Fine Art Resource, Berlin; and Indigo Blue Art, Singapore. His more recent shows in India include those at the Lalit Kala Akedemi, New Delhi; Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi; Gallery Veda, Chennai; ICIA, Mumbai; and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. In 2023, Chowdhury's retrospective was on view at Snowball Studios, Mumbai. 

He currently lives and work between Kolkata and Santiniketan. 

Asia Arts Pathbreaker Award 2024

Asim Waqif (b.1978) studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. After initially working as an art director for film and television, he moved on creating independent videos and documentary filmmaking, eventually delving into a dedicated art practice. His recent projects have attempted to crossover between architecture, art and design, with a strong contextual reference to contemporary urban planning (or the lack thereof) and the politics of occupying, intervening in, and using public spaces.

Concerns of ecology and anthropology often weave through his work and he has done extensive research on vernacular systems of ecological management, especially with respect to water, waste and architecture. He has worked in sculpture, site-specific public installation, video, photography, and more recently with large-scale interactive installations that combine traditional and new media technologies. His latest project is वेणु (Venu), an intricate bamboo installation at the Hayward Gallery in London.

Waqif has held solo shows at Nature Morte, New Delhi and Galerie Templon, Paris in 2013, and the Palais Tokyo, Paris in 2012. Select Work includes: his projects at the Chicago Architecture Biennale (2023), the Hayward Gallery in London (2023), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2022-23), Durga Puja Pandal in Kolkata (2019), Offsite at Vancouver Art Gallery (2017), 8th Asia-Pacific Triennial (2015); Pavillion de Debris at Marrakech Biennale (2014); Bordel Monstre (2012) at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Andekhi Jumna (2011); Residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, USA (2011). 

He lives and works in Delhi. 

Asia Arts Future (India) Award 2024

Aban Raza (b. 1989) held her first solo exhibition, Luggage, People and a little space, at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in Bombay in 2020. In 2022, she had her second exhibition titled There is something tremendous about the blue sky, which attempted to raise fundamental questions about the life of ‘the large minorities’ and other ‘working majorities’ and the right to protest and exist. Her curatorial experience for Sahmat includes: Celebrate. Illuminate. Rejuvenate. Defend the Constitution at 70 (2020), India is not lost (2021) and Hum Sab Sahmat (2022).

She lives and works in Delhi.

Asia Arts Future (South Asia) Award 2024

Prasiit Sthapit (b. 1988) is a visual storyteller based in Kathmandu. His works explore the politics of being a Nepali by scratching its past and the resultant present. He is currently associated Fuzz Factory Productions, a multimedia collective based in Kathmandu, photo.circle, a platform for photography in Nepal and Photo Kathmandu. He is also the director o Fuzzscape, a multi-media music documentary project. 

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