A Delicate Line: Corpse She Was Holding (detail), Chitra Ganesh (b. 1975, United States), 2010, screenprint, lithograph, linocut, monotype, digital printing, glitter, and plastic on paper, Courtesy of Drs. Umesh and Sunanda Gaur, © Chitra Ganesh

Body Transformed: Contemporary South Asian Photographs and Prints
February 15 – August 17, 2025
Curator Tour: Saturday, February 15, 2025, 2-3pm
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery | Gallery 28

The National Museum of Asian Art is pleased to open Body Transformed: Contemporary South Asian Photographs and Prints, an exhibition of works that center on the human figure, on February 15. Join curator Carol Huh for an in-depth tour on opening day and discover how these artists use the expressive power of photography and print media to examine the individual’s place in the world.

Works by Pushpamala N. and Clare Arni, Vivek Vilasini, Ram Rahman, and Naveen Kishore focus on the performing body to confront notions of gender and cultural identity through photography, a medium that has played a complicated role in India since the nineteenth century. Jitish Kallat and Rashid Rana manipulate photographic images to simultaneously assert and dissolve the portrait in jarring compositions that hover between reflections on the public being and the disquiet of the inner self.

Master print artists Krishna Reddy, Chitra Ganesh, and Jyoti Bhatt experiment with provocatively carved lines and vivid colors unique to printmaking. Fragmenting, morphing, and multiplying the figure, these artists incorporate various processes to explore representations of power, place, and sexuality in today’s world.

Body Transformed draws from the generous gifts of Drs. Umesh and Sunanda Gaur.

To learn more, click here.