AS NEW DELHI'S GALLERY ESPACE MARKS ITS 35TH ANNIVERSARY, AD LOOKS AT GALLERIST RENU MODI'S JOURNEY IN ART.

The New Delhi-based Gallery Espace, founded by Renu Modi in 1989, recently marked its 35th anniversary with two special exhibitions.

- SHAIKH AYAZ

Both shows are an attempt to join the dots between past and future, paying homage to the gallery's rich history while simultaneously showcasing contemporary artistic practices that hint at the very future of art. Curated by Gayatri Sinha, Memory Fields brings together a roster of artists who have helped shape Gallery Espace's philosophy over the decades. The line-up includes a who's who of the Indian modernist vanguard Manjit Bawa, MF Husain, Nilima Sheikh, Zarina Hashmi and J Swaminathan, to name a few. Then, there's Ancestral Futures, an exhibition of mostly contemporary artists that hopes to intertwine "the past, present, and future, positing that ancestral histories profoundly influence our understanding of time and identity", as curator Damien Christinger puts it.