India Art Fair’s EDI+IONS brings a collection of galleries and artists from across India to Hyderabad

At EDI+IONS Hyderabad, artists such as Rathin Barman, Jignesh Panchal, and Priyanka Aelay explore memory, migration, and identity — each through their own lens

According to Jaya Asokan, director of India Art Fair, EDI+IONS was born from a simple but powerful idea — to extend the fair’s spirit beyond Delhi and engage art communities more intimately across the country. “The idea was not to replicate the fair, but to create smaller, city-specific showcases that capture each region’s distinct culture and energy,” she explains.

Hyderabad, she adds, was the natural choice to begin. “It’s a city where heritage and innovation co-exist beautifully — where craft traditions thrive alongside cutting-edge contemporary art.”

For Rathin Barman, structure in his art serves as a record of human life. “Architecture is proportionate to the human body. People bring buildings to life through their activities,” he says. His works trace how time reshapes spaces and the people who inhabit them. Studying migration, he finds resilience in the makeshift homes people create out of necessity. “When people move out of compulsion, the first thing they build is shelter,” he explains. “Over time, that shelter becomes a home — constantly evolving, shedding its original form but collecting new stories.”

Jignesh Panchal views the city as a collage of memories and histories. His series Paradise of Orient weaves together miniature painting with impressions from his travels across India and Europe. “It’s a conversation between the past and the present,” he says. His imagined cities live somewhere between dream and memory.

For Priyanka Aelay, inspiration lies closer home — in Telangana’s forests and its folklore. She paints animals, not people, as vessels of emotion and strength. “For me, power comes through fauna. The fox often appears in my work — I try to portray it differently from the usual image of cunning,” she says. Painting on the reverse of linen lends her work a soft translucence — “a little clear, a little hidden,” as she describes it.

Tanmoy Samanta, who shapes books into sculptures using rice paper and paint, works at the crossroads of history, memory, and the unknown. Maps, clocks, and fragments of daily life drift through his practice. “My paintings come from personal history and how I respond to the world — to its mysteries and small moments,” he says. His meditative works reveal subtle shifts in tone and intricate layering of pigment and paper. “Each layer holds a moment — the vulnerability and emotion of the artist at work,when someone spends time with it, they might sense that same feeling,” he elaborates.

Beyond individual practices, EDI+IONS Hyderabad opens up a broader conversation between craft and contemporary art — a dialogue Karishma Swali, creative director of Chanakya International and the Chanakya School of Craft, has been shaping for years.

“The process of deciding what to preserve and what to reinterpret always begins with deep research into a technique’s origins and cultural context,” says Karishma. Some traditions, like chaand jaal, are carefully revived to protect delicate lineages. In Trace, her team transforms embroidery into sculptural form, working with recycled seed, glass, and ceramic beads to expand the vocabulary of handcraft.

As India Art Fair’s EDI+IONS begins its journey in Hyderabad, it shows us that art is a bridge between people, places, and the passage of time itself.

Entry by registration only.

November 1-2, 11.30 am to 6 pm.

At RMZ The Loft, Hitech City.