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Before Instagram and Twitter, South Asian q***r communities connected through print 🏳️‍🌈🖨️Zines, letters and comics help...
22/06/2026

Before Instagram and Twitter, South Asian q***r communities connected through print 🏳️‍🌈🖨️

Zines, letters and comics helped q***r people find and engage with each other long before social media made anonymity and community accessible. Wrapped in brown paper, shared by word of mouth and circulated through underground networks, these publications were filled with illustrations, comics, poetry and essays centering q***r experiences.

📚 Scripts was a magazine created by a group of q***r women that signed off with the bold phrase, “till Dykedom come.” Produced by Le****ns and Bisexuals in Action, the multilingual zine circulated for over 20 years, covering themes ranging from motherhood to the censorship of Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996). Its deliberately chaotic design featured multiple fonts and styles across issues.

📰 Bombay Dost, founded by Ashok Row Kavi in 1990, was India’s first registered LGBTQ magazine. Sold for ₹15 and often kept at the back of small shops, it created space for conversations around HIV, q***r intimacy and romance. Monochromatic colours and creative design choices prioritised discretion. One particularly memorable cover featured Akshay Kumar — a move that drew scrutiny at a time when public association with the community was rare.

🔺 Trikone was the oldest newsletter in the US dedicated to LGBTQ+ South Asians, created by the organisation of the same name. Its logo referenced both the triangular shape of the subcontinent and reclaimed the inverted pink triangle used by N**i Germany to persecute q***r people. From modest beginnings, the publication eventually evolved into a glossy magazine with editorial-style covers.

While digital platforms and online communities have exploded over the last two decades, zines and print media continue to offer creative spaces for q***r artists, writers and audiences. From the Gaysi zine to graphic storytelling by Kadak Collective, hand-drawn cartoons, rustling pages and vulnerable lines penned by unknown writers continue to bring communities together across the country and the world ✨

***rHistory ***rZines ***rArt

Being at Art Basel is only part of the story. This year, it’s the curatorial choices behind each booth that stand out.Ru...
17/06/2026

Being at Art Basel is only part of the story. This year, it’s the curatorial choices behind each booth that stand out.
Running from 16 to 21 June, this year’s fair sees four Indian galleries take four distinct approaches. Tarq and Vadehra Art Gallery each present a solo booth, offering a deeper engagement with the practices of Rithika Merchant and Gulam Mohammed Sheikh respectively.

Meanwhile, Chemould Prescott Road and Experimenter present group exhibitions that reflect the breadth of their programmes and the conversations they continue to build across artists, mediums and ideas.

Artists featured by Chemould Prescott Road: Shilpa Gupta, Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, Reena Saini Kallat, Hema Upadhyay, L.N. Tallur, Despina Stokou, Gieve Patel, Ayesha Singh and Mithu Sen.

Artists featured by Experimenter: Ayesha Sultana, Aziz Hazara, Bani Abidi, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Chanakya School, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Prabhakar Pachpute, Radhika Khimji, Sohrab Hura, Soumya Sankar Bose, T. Vinoja and Vikrant Bhise.

Which booth are you most looking forward to seeing?



Media courtesy of , Chemould CoLab, TARQ & Vadehra Art Gallery.

In a time where images can be generated from nothing, how do photographers contend with questions of presence and bearin...
11/06/2026

In a time where images can be generated from nothing, how do photographers contend with questions of presence and bearing witness?

Join visual artists Vasudhaa Narayanan (), Rohit Saha (Rohit Saha), and artist duo Madhuban Mitra and Manas Bhattacharya (Madhuban & Manas) at Art Fervour Community Table’s Kolkata edition for an open conversation on the life cycle, ethics and future of photographic work today.

The artists will share insights from their own practices, while addressing market forces, generative imagery and the ethics of representation.

Pull up a chair at Sienna Calcutta (Sienna Calcutta) for an evening of meaningful conversations and cultural community 📷✨

📍 Sienna Calcutta
🗓️ 18 June 2026
🕒 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

🔗 RSVP via the link in our bio to join the conversation

[Art Fervour, Community Table, Talks, Conversations, Artists, Visual Artists, Photography, Contemporary Art, Kolkata, Sienna, Calcutta, Kolkata Artists, Kolkata Photographers]

Content note: This post discusses homophobia & a reference to suicidal thoughts.Today, Bhupen Khakhar (1934–2003) is cel...
09/06/2026

Content note: This post discusses homophobia & a reference to suicidal thoughts.

Today, Bhupen Khakhar (1934–2003) is celebrated as one of the first Indian artists to openly depict q***r desire. But what is easy to forget is how much courage that visibility required.

According to his friend and biographer Timothy Hyman, Khakhar once admitted that until the mid-1970s, he felt that if his friends discovered he was gay, he would be prepared to take his own life. It is a startling confession, one that makes the openness of his later paintings feel all the more extraordinary.

Visits to Britain in the 1970s exposed Khakhar to more open attitudes towards sexuality and helped shape his journey towards self-acceptance. Yet the visual language he developed remained distinctly his own.

Working at a time when homosexuality remained criminalised in India, Khakhar painted intimacy, companionship and desire with a directness rarely seen in Indian contemporary art. Yet he never treated q***rness as a separate subject. His canvases are populated by lovers, neighbours, shopkeepers, clerks and family members. Desire exists alongside routine. Q***r life is woven into the fabric of everyday India.

This is what makes works like 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝘾𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝘼𝙡𝙡 (1981) and 𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝙈𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 (1982) so radical. Not because they depict q***r life, but because they depict it without spectacle. These are paintings shaped by tenderness, companionship and vulnerability, animated less by ideals of beauty than by warmth and touch.

More than four decades later, Khakhar’s vision of q***rness remains strikingly relevant: intimate, human and deeply ordinary.

***rArt

Kolkata-based Sangita Maity’s (.sangita) practice is grounded in labour, migration and ecology – and deserves your atten...
05/06/2026

Kolkata-based Sangita Maity’s (.sangita) practice is grounded in labour, migration and ecology – and deserves your attention this World Environment Day 🌳

Her works often engage with the indigenous communities in India whose lives have been affected by mining, rubber plantations and extraction.

Rubber requires a considerable amount of water, rubber plantations disturb the ground water reserves these communities rely on, and its monoculture farming affects forest ecology and rainfall.

Maity interacts with the rubber plantations and visits associated factories to understand the disruption to the lives of the indigenous people who work there.

Through photography, serigraphy, and photo-etchings, her work bears witness to the original custodians of the ecosystems that are shrinking further everyday.

Images courtesy of

Few graphic novels have travelled as far, or spoken to as many people, as 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴.Following the passing of Marjane Sa...
05/06/2026

Few graphic novels have travelled as far, or spoken to as many people, as 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴.

Following the passing of Marjane Satrapi, we return to the work that introduced generations of readers to the possibilities of graphic storytelling.

Created from her experiences growing up in Iran during and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴 transformed personal memory into a story about freedom, identity, exile and resistance. What made the book remarkable was its ability to make history intimate. Rather than recounting political events through official narratives, Satrapi showed how they are experienced in everyday life: in classrooms, family conversations, friendships and moments of quiet rebellion.

For readers around the world, particularly women, the graphic novel remains a powerful account of growing up in a society where personal choices, appearance and self-expression are constantly scrutinised. Its themes continue to resonate across borders, including in India, where questions of identity, belonging and freedom remain deeply relevant. In 2021, the book was translated into Hindi, bringing Satrapi’s story to an even wider readership.
Originally published in the early 2000s and later adapted into an acclaimed animated film, 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴 helped redefine what a graphic novel could be. Satrapi proved that drawings could carry autobiography, history and political critique with extraordinary depth and reach audiences far beyond the comics world.

𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴 endures because it reminds us that history is not only shaped by governments and revolutions, but by ordinary people trying to live through them.

Through one deeply personal story, Marjane Satrapi created a work that continues to resonate across countries, cultures and generations.



All images & stills from Marjane Satrapi’s, ‘Persepolis’ – the graphic novel & film.
Slide 6: Image of a poster for Persepolis at a tram stop in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph by Ivonna Nowicka. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Geminis aren’t two-faced, they just contain ✨multitudes✨ — and these South Asian artworks embody the whimsical duality o...
04/06/2026

Geminis aren’t two-faced, they just contain ✨multitudes✨ — and these South Asian artworks embody the whimsical duality of the air sign ♊

The Gemini constellation is marked by two bright stars, which is why the zodiac is often represented by celestial twins. Mercurial, curious and quick-witted, Geminis thrive in change, creativity and fluidity.

♊Gemini Twins Wordsmiths is part of Arpita Singh’s (tag) 1999 series exploring emotional archetypes through the astrological signs. Here, the twins embody Gemini’s inherent duality, while vivid colours and the floating book evoke the sign’s vibrant inner world.

♊In Mirror Plane, Pakistani artist Shahzia Sikander (tag) explores themes of transformation and evolution. Through symmetry and mirroring, the work recalls the twin self, the shapeshifter, and the merging of the mortal and the divine.

♊S.H. Raza’s Duality (2006) places his signature Bindu at its centre, extending his engagement with geometric abstraction. Through symmetry and contrast, the work reflects Gemini’s capacity to hold opposing forces in balance

♊Lubna Chowdhury’s (tag) Verso Recto I combines the geometry of modernist art with references to Eastern calligraphy and manuscript design. The title – referring to the front and back of a page – further gestures towards ideas of duality and hybridity.

♊Pakistani painter Abdur Rehman Chughtai’s Waiting for Krishna may not directly reference duality, but its twin yearning figures are visually reminiscent of Gemini.

This Gemini Szn, we hope you celebrate some of the most colourful and interesting personalities in our lives!🤭

[Gemini Szn, Arpita Singh, Lubna Chowdhury, Abdur Rehman Chughtai, S.H Raza, Geminis, Air Signs, Astrology, June]

Image Credits:
Arpita Singh, Gemini Twins Wordsmiths, 1999, Watercolour on paper. Courtesy: Artsy (Tag)
Shahzia Sikander, Mirror Plane, 2012, Color direct gravure on paper. Courtesy: Asheville Art Museum (tag)
S H Raza, Duality, 2006, Serigraph on paper. Courtesy: StoryLtd.
Lubna Chowdhury, Verso Recto I, 2025, Glazed ceramic panels. Courtesy: Stir World (tag)
Abdur Rehman Chughtai, Waiting for Krishna. Courtesy: Tumblr.

The late Danish Siddiqui’s photojournalism blurred the lines between urgent documentation and stirringly powerful visual...
19/05/2026

The late Danish Siddiqui’s photojournalism blurred the lines between urgent documentation and stirringly powerful visual art.

On what would have been his 43rd birthday, we remember the two-time Pulitzer-winning photographer’s works that gave shape and feeling to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, while also capturing conflicts across the subcontinent, Hong Kong, and North Korea.

Siddiqui’s photographs stand out for their unflinching gaze, as well as the tenderness, compassion and empathy in each frame. In his own words: “While I enjoy covering news stories – from business to politics to sports – what I enjoy most is capturing the human face of a breaking story.” His photographs refuse to let viewers look away from suffering, compelling them to confront discomfort, anger and sorrow. Published in the likes of the Washington Post, Al Jazeera and TIME Magazine to name a few, his photographs embody the artistic rigour of photojournalism as a practice.

Siddiqui was killed in 2021 while covering a clash between the Afghan special forces and the Taliban. His commitment to giving voice to the oppressed, especially in times of deteriorating press freedom, continues to demonstrate the need for fearless journalists and artists who can bear witness to our times.

[Danish Siddiqui, Reuters, Photojournalism, COVID-19, Citizenship Law, Hong Kong Protests, North Korea, Pyongyang, Afghanistan, Press Freedom Index, Photography]

Bihar was a buzzing epicentre of cultural production across the ages — and the Bihar Museum () puts the spotlight back w...
18/05/2026

Bihar was a buzzing epicentre of cultural production across the ages — and the Bihar Museum () puts the spotlight back where it belongs 🔦

On International Museum Day, here’s why it’s possibly one of the most interesting museums in India today:
🏛️Designed by Fumihiko Maki and Opolis Architects, the museum sprawls across 13+ acres in Patna; a stunning, modernist campus weaving built and open spaces, setting a new architectural bar for museums and art institutions in the country.
🏛️Their collection spans historical Buddhist artefacts, Patna Qalam, and works by contemporary artists including Subodh Gupta, Aparna Caur, Anjolie Ela Menon, and Paresh Maity.
🏛️The one-of-a-kind Diaspora Gallery traces histories of Bihari migration, including the roots of the Girmityas – descendants of indentured Bihari labourers from Caribbean island nations.
🏛️The museum moves beyond static labels through ambient sound, projection, and digital storytelling, and offers wheelchair accessibility, audio-visual guides and immersive exhibition design.
🏛️And it organises the Bihar Museum Biennale: the first biennale of museums in the world.

However, the Bihar Museum sits alongside the century-old Patna Museum, which it was built to complement, not replace. Yet several artefacts from the older institution have been transferred to the new one, including the iconic Didarganj Yakshi. The move has drawn criticism from cultural voices who question whether a new state-of-the-art facility needed to come at the older museum’s expense.
It’s a legitimate debate that invites us to think deeply about the ethics of cultural stewardship in India. Regardless, the Bihar Museum reminds us that vibrant cultural spaces and conversations don’t just thrive in Tier-1 cities — a vision definitely worth celebrating today.

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