Many Visions, Many Versions: Art from Indigenous Communities in India.

Many Visions, Many Versions: Art from Indigenous Communities in India highlights work by contemporary artists from four major indigenous artistic traditions in India. The exhibition features paintings by significant indigenous artists including Jangarh Singh Shyam, Jivya Soma Mashe, Sita Devi, and Swarna Chitrakar, among others. Many Visions, Many Versions explores the breadth and variety of cultural traditions in India, revealing a dynamic aesthetic that remains deeply rooted in traditional culture, yet vitally responsive to issues of global concern.

Many Visions, Many Versions brings together art from the Gond and Warli communities of Central India, the Mithila region of Bihar, and the narrative scroll painters of Bengal. The works are drawn from private collections in the United States and Europe. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity for viewers to learn about life and culture in India through these remarkable artworks. The curators organize the paintings thematically to demonstrate the shared cultural features and contemporary concerns of these four communities, while emphasizing the diversity of their artists’ unique expressive forms, techniques, and styles. The exhibition is divided into four broad categories: Myth and Cosmology, Nature—Real and Imagined, Village Life, and Contemporary Explorations.

Many Visions, Many Versions is curated by Drs. Aurogeeta Das and David Szanton with assistance from consulting curator Jeffrey Wechsler. It is organized by BINDU modern Gallery and is toured by International Arts & Artists (IA&A), Washington, DC. International Arts & Artists in Washington, DC is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally through exhibitions, programs and services to artists, art institutions and the public.