Ravi Agarwal

Ravi Agarwal

Lives and works in New Delhi

Ravi Agarwal is an artist, environmental activist, writer and curator. His earlier work, in the documentary oeuvre, encompasses ‘nature’, ‘work,’ ‘labour,’ and the ‘street,’ while more recent work has been traversing questions of the self and ecological sustainability based on explorations of ‘personal ecologies.’ He now works with photography, video and installation.

His art practice is integral to his other pursuits. He is the founder of the well known Indian NGO Toxics Link. He has been invited by the City of Hamburg and the Goethe Institute to cocurate a twin city public art project to be held simultaneously in Hamburg and Delhi, in October/ November 2011.

Solo Shows

2010-11 Flux: dystopia, utopia, heterotopia. Gallery Espace, New Delhi
2008 An Other Place, Gallery Espace, New Delhi,
2006: Alien Waters, India International Centre, New Delhi,
2000: Down and Out, Labouring Under Global Capitalism, New Delhi,India Habitat Centre,Ahmedabad, Gujarat India, The Hutheesingh Visual Arts Gallery, Amsterdam - National Vakbondsmuseum
1995: A Street View, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi

Selected Group Exhibitions

2011 The Eye is a Lonely Hunter, Images of Humankind,curated Katerina Gregos, Solvej Helweg Ovesen. Fotofestival Mannheim_Ludwigshafen_Heidelberg, Germany
2011 After the Crash, curated Camilla Boehimo, Orto Botanico – Museum, Rome
2011 Tolstoy Farm, curated Gayatri Sinha, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
2011 India Art Summit, Gallery Espace, New Delhi
2010 CWG, Sports and the City, curated Rupika Chawala, LKA, New Delhi
2010 Where Three Dreams Cross, curated Sunil Gupta et al, Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Winterthur Fotomuseum, Switzerland
2009 Detour, curated Ranjit Hoskote, Gallery Chemould, New Delhi
2009 Astonishment of Being, curated Deeksha Nath, Birla Academy for Arts and Culture, Kolkotta
2009 The Purple Wall, curated Gayatri Sinha, India Art Summit, 2009
2009 Recycle, curated Bhavna Vij, Travencore House, New Delhi, Nature Morte, Kolkota
2008/ 11 Indian Highway, curated Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gunnar Kvaran, traveling exhibition, Serpentine Gallery, London (2008), Astrep Fernley Museum, Oslo, Norway (2009), Denmark (2010), Lyon-France (2011), MAXX, Rome, Italy (2011)
2008 Extinct, curated Pooja Sood, 48deg C, Public Eco-Art International festival, New Delhi
2008 Still/Moving Image, curated Deeksha Nath, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi
2008 Click! Contemporary Photography in India, curated Sunil Gupta and Radhika Singh, Vadhera Gallery, New Delhi
2007 Frieze Art Fair, Khoj Artists Workshop Stall, London
2007 Horn Please, The Narrative in Contemporary Indian Art ,curated Bernhard Fibicher, Suman Gopinath, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland.
2007: Public Places, Private Spaces, curated Gayatri Sinha, Zetta Emmons, Newark Museum, Newark and Minneapolis (2008) USA.
2006; Watching Me Watching India - curated by Gayatri Sinha and Celina Lunsford, Frankfurt Fotographie International, Frankfurt, Germany
2003: Crossing Generations: DiVERGE: Forty years of Gallery Chemould, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, curated by Geeta Kapoor and Chaitanya
2002: Documenta 11, curated Okwui, Enzwor, Kassel, Germany
1996: 2nd Biennial of Creative Photography, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
1995: First National Exhibition of Photography, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
1993 Bombay Natural History Society photo exhibition, Bombay, India.

Books and Catalogues
Chemicals, Environment, Health: A Global Management Perspective
(forthcoming, 2011) co authored, Taylor and Francis
Flux: Dystopia, Utopia, Heterotopia, Gallery Espace, 2011
In the Shadow of the Vulture, 48 deg C, Public Eco Art, Goethe Institute, New
Delhi, 2009
Immersion. Emergence, Youthreach, New Delhi, 2007
Down and Out: Labouring under Global Capitalism New Delhi: Oxford University
Press and Amsterdam, University Press, 2000
Making a Difference, A collection of essays, ed. Rukmani Shekhar, Spic Mackay,
New Delhi, 1998
Portfolios in The India Magazine, 1995 and 1997
Portfolio in The First City Magazine, 2003
Monthly Photo Column in First City Magazine, since Feb 2005
Selected Publications:
1. Contemporary Flows, Fluid Times, Art Fair Magazine, February 2011
2. Fight for a Forest, Nature without Borders, Seminar 613, ed. Mahesh
Ranagarajan and M.D.Madhusudan, September 2010
3. Hi Tech Heaps, Forsaken Lives (co-authored), Challenging the Chip,
Labour Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry,
ed Ted Smith et al, Temple University Press, USA, 2007
4. Standardised, packaged, ready for consumption, Sarai Reader 05, Bare
Acts, Sarai – CSDS, Delhi, 2005
4
5. Beyond environmental standards, from techno centric to people centric
environmental governance. Troubles Times, Sustainable Development and
Governance in the Age of Extrems.” SDPI, Islamabad, 2006
6. Resisting technology, regaining and a personal ecology, Sarai Reader, 03,
Shaping Technologies, 2003
7. Corporate Social responsibility, a critical perspective from India,
Cometische humanisering? Ed Tonja van den Ende et al, Humanistic
University Press, Amsterdam, 2005
8. Walk on the Wild Side, (co-authored) Green Book, ed Ruskin Bond, Roli
Books, 2003
Articles In:
1. Art India, Volume XV, 2010-11, Roles People Play, Meera Menezes
2. Art India, Volume XV, 2010-11, The Nature of the Beast, Janice Pariat
3. Art India, Volume XIV, 2009-10, Images with Conscience, Meera Menezes
Other
Conceived and organized:
Yamuna – Elbe, Art and ecology seminar, December 2010, Goethe Institute, New
Delhi (ww.yamuna-elbe.org)
Invited to:
Arts Residency, Basel, Pro Helvetia, 2009
Khoj Peers Arts Residency, 2007
Awarded:
IFCS- UN Special Recognition Award for Chemical Safety, 2008
Ashoka Fellowship, social entrepreneurship, 1997
Web resources:
www.raviagarwal.com, www.toxicslink.org, www. galleryespace.com