SOUTH ASIAN ARTISTS TO WATCH OUT FOR

From Art Basel to the Venice Biennale, AD spotlights five noteworthy artists at the centre of the scene.

- TEXT: MAANAV JALAN

Debashish Paul

Paul is in search of his internal body—a body without limits. On view at the Coventry Biennial 2025 till 25 January, his multidisciplinary practice—made of performance, drawing, sculpture, photography and video—orbits this elusive yet felt entity. “There is fear and anxiety in my physical body,” he says. “So, as an artist, I engage with another body, an expression of the soul, which is endless in its transformations and pleasures.” The Varanasi-based artist sets the stage for his search, borrowing from the city’s ritual and spiritual lexicon. Both shyness and ego disappear when Paul is mid-performance in an elaborate costume, the skin of his internal body. The artist will spend the next two years at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, finding new modes of concealment and revelation.

Radhika Khimji