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The Nature of the City Curated by Nitin Mukul and Alexander Keefe in partnership with Arts•I December 12, 2008 - January 15, 2009 Arts•I Gallery / Religare Arts Initiative Scindia House, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi Financial crisis, ecological catastrophe, political turmoil--the headlines around the world these days make for grim reading, but they also point to something crucially important: the growing interconnection between the worlds of nature, the city, the state, and the market. The Nature of the City, on display at the Religare Art Initiative's Arts-I Gallery from December 16th to January 15th, is a group exhibition of new artworks that examines this interconnection, particularly in the context of the South Asian city, situating itself at the environmental, human and architectural intersections in India's urbanising ecology, at the busy borderlands between what is built and what grows. The show combines visual art with conceptual pieces, and brings together a diverse group artists working with drawings, video, paintings, photography, sculpture, design and new media. The artists participating are: Sheba Chhachhi, Ravi Agarwal, Samit Das, Ram Rahman, Gauri Gill, Jenson Anto, Devang Anglay, Nitin Mukul, Parvathi Nayar, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Sumakshi Singh, Gautam Bhatia. The show will also feature a collaboration with Pradip Krishen. This is an art show, but one with a difference: it is designed as a multi-disciplinary platform for a much-needed dialogue concerning the environmental challenges posed and faced by India's rapid process of urbanization. Nitin Mukul is a Delhi/New York-based artist. He was included in the landmark exhibition Edge of Desire/Fatal Love at the Queens Museum of Art in NYC in 2005. He had a fellowship at the Kanoria Centre for the Arts, Ahmedabad in 2003. He has worked as an assistant for the late American minimalist artist Sol Lewitt and was a former Creative Director at the Indocenter of Art & Culture in NYC. He has had recent shows with Nature Morte, The Guild, NY, and featured at Art Asia Miami 2008. Alexander Keefe is an independent Delhi-based critic and writer. He has written for ARTFORUM, ART India, Matters of Art, Camerawork Delhi, Nature Morte Gallery, the Guild Gallery, and others, and blogs at http://jugaadoo.blogspot.com He did graduate work in Sanskrit and Persian at Harvard University, worked in the Indian Art department at the Sackler Gallery there, carried out research in India as a Fulbright fellow, has taught critical theory and Asian religions at Ohio University, and has divided his time between the United States and India since the early 90s. Participating Artists/Practitioners: Ravi Agarwal Sheba Chhachhi Nitin Mukul Gautam Bhatia Devang Anglay Jenson Anto Parvathi Nayar Pradip Krishen Budhaditya Chattopadyay Gauri Gill Samit Das Sumakshi Singh • View works in the exhibition • Read the catalog essay