ICAC brings 35 contemporary artists together in group show

A large group exhibition bringing together established and emerging voices from across the country opened at LTC Gallery, Bikaner House, in New Delhi on 9 January, offering a wide-ranging look at contemporary Indian art drawn largely from a major private collection. Presented by the Mumbai- and Ahmedabad-based International Creative Art Centre (ICAC), the exhibition titled Melodious, Pure and True featured works by 35 artists and was curated by art historian Johny ML. A significant portion of the artworks came from the personal collection of ICAC founder Ravindra Mardia, an industrialist and art collector who has built a collection of nearly 10,000 works over the years. From this archive, Mardia and the curator selected nineteen artists, alongside several others whose practices reflect the breadth of current artistic expression in India. The participating artists included Chandra Bhattacharya, Manish Pushkale, Surya Prakash, Prem Singh, Yusuf, Sangeeta Gupta, Yashwant Deshmukh, Hemant Dhane, Mainaz Bano, Sunil Padwal, Nilesh Vede, Vinod Sharma, Sanju Jain, Virangana Soni, Rajesh Dev, Rashmi Khurana, Abid Zaidi, Shanmuk Tamada, Santosh Verma, Shabana Quadri, Ashok Bhowmick, Kanchan Chander, Neerja Chandana Peters, Ritu Singh, Harpreet Singh, Udayakumar T R and others, representing a mix of senior practitioners and younger voices. Speaking about the exhibition, Mardia said his collection had been shaped by long-term engagement with artists and their ideas rather than acquisition alone. He noted that while it includes works by established figures who have influenced modern Indian art, it also features emerging artists whose intensity and originality he believes will shape the future of the field. Curator Johny ML framed the exhibition around the idea of hope, reflecting on the contradictions of contemporary life marked by both uncertainty and everyday resilience. In his catalogue essay, he described how ordinary moments and familiar sounds anchor people amid social and political fragility, and how this quiet persistence finds expression across the works on display. The exhibition opened in the presence of art professionals and scholars including Kiran Mohan, Vladimir Zaistev, Sushma Bahl and Naseer Abdullah, alongside the founder and curator. It remained on view until 13 January, drawing audiences to one of Delhi’s key cultural venues and offering a snapshot of the diversity of contemporary Indian art practice today.