Category: In Focus
Venice RE-wind
We enter Biennales with the eagerness of a child entering a playground or a spectacle; and find spaces that create challenging and playful e [...]
Retrospectives: The Past and the Future of the Past
I am often interested in the seismic trajectory of some art historical terminology, the way in which it gains social and cultural currency a [...]
In Good Company? Retrospectives and Global Art History
In 1855 French painter Gustave Courbet mounted an exhibition of his work titled the “Pavilion of Realism” outside the grand Exposi [...]
Karachi Biennale- Mobilizing the Metropolis
Being the main seaport and the economic and commercial hub of Pakistan, Karachi is the largest city and the gateway of the country producing sixty-fiv [...]
The Biennale, the City, the Future
The dated tradition of The Grand Tour provided the mobile classes of England with an opportunity to travel the Continent, view its art and architect [...]
Biennale: A Neo-Political Phenomenon
In the art world, there is a constant negotiation between two poles: poiesis (poetic production) and oikonomia (management of poet [...]
And Then There Were Two
When the British Empire finally deserted the region once known as the Indian Sub-Continent, the populace was left with a rich, broken mass [...]
South Asia at Seventy
This essay focuses on a few prominent historical figures and movements in the art history of South Asia that laid the foundation of the art we see tod [...]
Art and the City
A city is not a museum. It is unlike any object of desire that can be preserved, or a collection of sorts on display in a cabinet of curiosity. We do [...]
The City as a Muse
The Ideal city
Cites are not just utilitarian structures; agglomerations of houses and workplaces. As Marco Polo entertains the Great Khan [...]