What happens when you mix traditional Indian embroidery techniques such as zardozi and ari with the idioms of contemporary visual art? You get artist-designer Viraj Khanna's latest body of work that marries India's rich textile heritage and the contemporary global landscape.
A slight departure from Khanna's signature collages, these hand-embroidered textile works show the evolution of the artist in his experimentation with newer materials such as artificial leather, leaves, and grass as embroidery mediums. His narrative-driven, personal approach to art-making vividly captures the different moods of life. Through his imaginative figurative style, Viraj employs traditional Indian embroidery techniques to craft a youthful voice that speaks to the moment of global encounter.
His latest hand-embroidered textile works will be part of I-Pop — a two-person exhibition of new works by Tarini Seth and Viraj Khanna — presented by Rajiv Menon Contemporary at the Untitled Art Fair at Miami Beach, Florida, from December 4 to 8, 2024. The exhibition challenges the distinction between the “folk” and the “popular,” specifically honing in on embroidery and metalwork design as forms of globally influential popular aesthetic practices prevalent in India. I-Pop marks the rise of two major young talents from India, demonstrating the significance of South Asia as a major global aesthetic force.
"This time, I have experimented with new materials such as artificial leather, artificial leaves, and grass as embroidery mediums. The idea is to explore the myriad possibilities of the medium and initiate a conversation about how we are represented by an 'image' in society."Viraj Khanna
Embroidery, textile, and craftsmanship have been at the forefront of Indian popular expression, and have been major inflection points for the cultural encounter between India and the West. Embracing this year's fair theme, "East Meets West," Khanna's embroidery works bring to life the dynamic interplay between India's rich textile heritage and the contemporary global landscape. His figures — a seamless blend of desires and emotions, physicality and spirituality — embody the intersection of consumer culture and the wider contemporary art scene. Khanna employs traditional Indian embroidery techniques like zardozi and ari to elevate the aesthetics of India's global consumer culture — defined by sartorial fashion and design — into a painterly form that merges realism and abstraction, reflecting the evolving identities in South Asia and the rest of the world.
About the artist:
Viraj Khanna (b. 1995, Kolkata, India) studied Business Administration at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 2018. Viraj Khanna’s works have been exhibited in solo shows at the LOFT, Gallery Art Exposure, Kolkata (2021), Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai (2022), and the India Art Fair 2023 with Tao Art Gallery. He is currently pursuing an MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Follow Viraj Khanna here.
Follow Rajiv Menon Contemporary here.
If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:
Celebrate Bengali Art Heritage & Culture This Winter At The Bengal Biennale In Kolkata
Serendipity 2024: Dive Into Multidisciplinary Artistic Experiences In Goa This December
The Way Home: Indian Artist Subodh Gupta Is Making A Prodigal Return At The Bihar Museum