For over twenty years now, KHOJ has pushed artistic practice by building synergies across the region and fostering dialogues and debates that were seeded from practice. As an alternative for practices that had long existed within institutional, gallery, auction or fair-based markets, KHOJ has continued to create diverse spaces for artists to try, fail and try again. Collectively started by a group of artists, KHOJ has continued to ask: What does it mean to be contemporary in South Asia? How do we innovate artistic practice in the light of our times?

Today, the tide turns again and the above questions echo even louder. We stand at a new juncture within the contemporary landscape of art in India. Divided between time and a new generation, artists across mediums and ideas continue to keep these collective synergies, making the scene far more hybrid and dialogic.

These solidarities demonstrate the ubiquitous and striking array of experimental or transformative art practices, which communicate the ‘new’ in contemporary art practice in India. It also reflects the rapidly changing social circumstances of the region.

The exhibition Turn of the Tide created a narrative of today, reflecting the temperament of our times informing the work of a new generation of artists making sense of ‘now’. In conversation with each other, they continue to expand contemporary art-making with the construction of a nation-wide scene. The works in the exhibition were generously gifted to KHOJ as part of the fundraiser 20/20: Artists for KHOJ. Many of the participating artists have been part of significant programs at KHOJ and have contributed critically to the many themes we continue to discover and expand.

This exhibition was conceptualized and produced by KHOJ International Artist’s Association, New Delhi. It was a collateral event to the India Art Fair 2018.