2016's Best Artworks - A Homegrown Roundup

Published on:

08 Jun 2021, 12:30 pm

4 min read

The end of the year is decidedly the best time to round the best things up with a nice fat zero at the end, but sometimes a double digit works just as well. This year, we decided to shine our laptop lights on a selection of Indian artists who blew us away with their creations. And we decided to wave a middle finger at the rules too. The artworks’ mediums span right across illustrations, digital photo-art and even installations, while their ‘deeper meanings’ are often up for interpretation. If the visual was striking enough to brighten the darker recesses of our minds during this increasingly terrifying year—we deemed it important enough to feature.
A quick scan through the works may highlight some of the year’s most important events. For instance, Tanya Singh’s doodles on Indian currency quickly call to mind the demonetisation disaster that has dictated our lives and the news cycle for over a month now; Jitch’s doodles blatantly point to the surprising outcome of the US Presidential election and Adrita Das’ digital collage piece, ‘lovers,’ will forever be the image through which we relive Delhi’s apocalyptic smog this year. Or it might reveal a certain affinity towards smashing stereotypes. Case in point, 17-year-old Priyanka Paul’s unabashed portrayal of goddesses as hipsters or Sadhna Prasad’s illustration for the #UnderTheHijaab instagram campaign that embraced art as a means of revolution. Then again, perhaps it will simply provoke parts of you that have remained dormant too long. Sarah Naqvi’s works consistently had that affect on us right through 2016.
All we know is that it’s been quite a year and if we can’t predict the outcome, we might as well preserve what we love. Scroll on to fall in love like we did. Whatever you find, you get to keep.

I. Priyanka Paul