Gigi Scaria
Gigi Scaria's works span a diverse range of media, including painting, photography, installation art, sculpture, and video - a testament to his creative versatility.
Growing up in Kothanalloor, a village in southern Kerala, Scaria began his artistic journey in 1995 with formal training at the College of Fine Arts in Thiruvananthapuram, where he earned his B.F.A. in painting. He further honed his skills at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, obtaining an M.F.A. in 1998. During this formative period, Scaria's art was influenced not only by his education, but also by his broader urban environment. His move from Kothanalloor to the capital enabled a deeper exploration of migrant alienation. His work began to examine the dynamic nature of cities, focusing on how their ongoing transformations were experienced by both newcomers and long-standing residents, themes that have remained central to his artistic practice.
From 2001 to 2006, Scaria served as a committee member for the Khoj International Artist Association in Delhi and organised one of their residency programmes. By 2002, Scaria garnered critical acclaim, receiving the Inlaks Scholarship from the UNIDEE, Cittadel-larte - Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy, where he was artist-in-residence. In the late 2000s, the artist also established a prominent international profile through a series of solo exhibitions at esteemed galleries, including H-Cube Gallery, Seoul (New Perspectives From India, 2008); The National Art Studio, Changdong (Triviality of Everyday Existence, 2008); Chemould Prescott Road (Amusement Park, 2009); Galerie Christian Hosp, Berlin (Settlement, 2009); Videospace, Budapest (Site under Construction, 2008); and The lan Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (Prisms of Perception, 2012).
In 2011, Scaria was among the five Indian artists featured at the 54th Venice Biennale, showcased in an exhibition entitled Everyone agrees: it's about to explode, curated by Ranjit Hoskote. This show was a landmark event in the history of Indian contemporary art, as it marked the first time the country had its own national pavilion at the Biennale. Scaria's contribution, Elevator from the Subcontinent (2011), was an immersive installation that simulated an elevator ride, allowing viewers to 'time travel' to various locations across India. Hoskote commended the piece for its "precise purchase on the sociological processes and psychological pressure of internal migration...an exchange between dissimilars, a tangled conversation."In addition to the Venice Biennale, Scaria presented at the 3rd Singapore Biennale and Prague Biennale 5 in 2011, as well as the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2014.
In 2015, Scaria's significant solo exhibition The Ark at Chemould provided a commentary on apocalyptic themes, reflecting upon climate change and its survival. Echoing Noah's evaluation of humanity in the Bible, Scaria also tackled the territorial disputes between Israel and Palestine, underscoring both the forward-thinking nature and the ongoing relevance of his art today.
Beyond his art, Scaria has contributed to education, serving as adjunct faculty at Jindal University in 2018 and as an associate professor at Shiv Nadar University (SNU) in 2022. He has also co-curated IDAM: Where Being Sprouts into Language, presented by The Kochi Biennale Foundation in 2022, and curated Moments in Collapse in 2024, a show at Jawahar Bhawan organised by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT). This ambitious exhibition featured 44 artists and over 80 artworks, exploring the challenges of the Indian socio-political landscape.
He is interested in the quality of social space in a drastically changing urban environment, with concomitant implications on psychological experience. Since 2000, Scaria has exhibited widely in India, and has participated in major exhibitions and residency programs internationally including in Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the USA.
Work represented in major curated exhibitions and biennales in India and internationally, including Venice, Singapore, Kochi-Muziris Biennales; Smart Museum, Chicago; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Kunstverein Frankfurt; lan Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; Kunsthaus Bern; Fredric Jameson Gallery, Duke University and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. Work also exhibited in curated exhibitions at National Gallery of Modern Art (Mumbai), Jawahar Kala Kendra (Jaipur) and Lalit Kala Akademi (Chennai and New Delhi).