Pulp Society is very excited to present Summer Somethings, a group exhibition showcasing a diverse array of practices. Continuing our tradition of showcase resident artists from the IMMERSE Fellowship, we'll bring to Delhi some incredible, new artistic voices.
Also, to showcase the work of our friends from South Asia, in a year when Pulp is celebrating 5 years, we decided to draw a loop, and bring back Sitara Chowfla: the curator who framed the primary program of Pulp in 2020-21. She is one of the founding members of Goa Open Arts Festival; and we're really excited to platform some of the practices from their festival, from Goa for this show.
Artists from Goa Open Arts: Asavari Gaurav | Ashish Phaldesai | Diptej Vernekar | Nishant Saldana | Pakhi Sen
Fellows from IMMERSE: Anish Nandy | Snigdha Tiwari | Umesh Singh
About Goa Open Arts
Goa Open Arts is an artist driven, not for profit initiative founded in 2019 by a group of independent creative practitioners. The focus of the platform is to support, invigorate and bring together the diverse and ever-growing creative talent in Goa through exhibitions, artist grants, mentorship programmes and community art projects. Our flagship program, the Goa Open Arts Festival is a large scale, biennial event celebrating the local art and culture of Goa.
About the Artists
Asavari Gaurav:
Asavari Gurav is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, poet, and educator whose work explores memories embedded in objects, events, and experiences. Her practice engages with representations of women and a diverse array of characters, often performers frozen in moments of action. Drawing from her land, identity, body, history, folklore, and socio-political narratives, her imagery evokes layered storytelling.
Working with site-specific and research-based projects, Gurav seeks to blur the boundaries between art and life. Her work has been showcased in a solo exhibition at the India International Centre (IIC), Delhi, in 2023, as well as in group exhibitions at IIC Delhi (2023), Space Studio Summer Residency, Vadodara (2023), the Museum of Christian Art, Goa (2022), Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts (2022), and Goa Open Arts at Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts (2021).
Ashish Phaldesai:
Ashish Ulhas Phaldesai is a photographer, visual artist, and performer whose practice explores ecology and landscapes through a surrealist lens. His work blurs the boundaries between reality and the intangible, creating immersive experiences that invite viewers to engage with the enchantment and contemplation of the natural world.
Phaldesai’s work has been exhibited in group shows at Goa Open Arts, First Edition (2020); Students’ Biennale, Kochi (2021, 2023); Sunaparanta Art Initiator Lab, Altinho, Panjim-Goa (2022); Goa Open Art Fundraiser Exhibition (2022); Goa Artist Collective (2022); and Carpe Diem Art Gallery, Goa (2022).
Diptej Vernekar:
Diptej Vernekar delves into the intersections of nature, memory, and the human experience through his distinctive use of charcoal. Born and raised near the marine environments of Goa, Vernekar’s work is deeply inspired by the natural rhythms of the sea and land. His use of charcoal, with its versatile and unpredictable nature, aligns with his vision of storytelling as an ever-evolving journey.
Vernekar holds a Bachelor’s degree from Goa College of Art and a Master’s from the SN School of Arts and Communication, Hyderabad. His exhibited widely, with notable accolades such as Forbes India’s 30 Under 30 and the Inlaks Fine Art Award. He is a co-founder of Goa Open Arts and the Goa Artist Collective.
Nishant Saldana:
Nishant Saldanha is an artist working across drawing, photography, and writing. With a background in art and design from Central Saint Martins, London, and a degree in filmmaking and character animation from the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, his practice navigates multiple disciplines.
His award-winning comic, Mr. Good Guy, takes an experimental approach to storytelling and was featured in The Best American Comics 2019. That same year, he was recognized as one of GQ’s Most Influential Young Indians.
Beyond his artistic practice, Saldanha co-coordinates the Amche Mollem Citizen’s Campaign in Goa, advocating against destructive infrastructure projects in the region’s largest protected area.
Pakhi Sen:
Pakhi Sen is a visual artist, illustrator, and educator. Her practice focuses on meditative oil pastel, and pencil drawings, expanding into interactive public art, animation, and graphic narratives. She explores the dialectics of community, development, and ecology focusing on how informal acts of caretaking sustain environments and shape the circulation, adaptation, and preservation of knowledge.
Sen has exhibited at the Serendipity Arts Festival and India Art Fair with GallerySKE and mentors at The Owl House and Art1st India.
About IMMERSE:
Siddharth Somaiya (Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai), Natasha Jeyasingh (Carpe Arte India), Al-Qawi Nanavati (Young Art Support India), and Shaleen Wadhwana, the curatorial caliph, created Immerse, a Fellowship and Residency program to nurture upcoming Indian artists and curators. They empower our Fellows with holistic knowledge about the art-world, and capacity built through creative pedagogy.
About the Artists
Anish Nandy:
Anish Nandy is a Kolkata-based artist whose paintings merge fictional and real-world characters in dream-like settings. His work explores social and community dynamics, using satire and metaphor to address socio-political and ecological concerns. Blending symbolic and cultural elements, he examines themes of identity, emotion, and the interplay between the spiritual and material.
Nandy holds an MFA from the Government College of Fine Arts, Jabalpur. His work has been exhibited at the India Art Fair Young Collectors Program (2024), Kochi-Muziris Biennale – Students’ Biennale (2016, 2020), Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2017), and Dhoomimal Art Gallery (2021). He has participated in the Immerse Residency (2023) and has works in public and private collections in India and abroad.
Snigdha Tiwari:
Snigdha Tiwari is a Delhi-based artist whose practice integrates textiles and personal narratives. Her work has been showcased in group exhibitions such as Immerse (2022), The Cadence of Free Fall (2019), and Art Asia (2018).
She has participated in residencies at 1ShanthiRoad’s Space 118 in Bengaluru and the Cona Foundation in Mumbai. A finalist for the 2022 Emerging Artist Award South Asia, Tiwari holds an MFA in Painting from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and a BFA from Delhi University’s College of Art.
Umesh Singh:
Umesh Singh (b. 1992) is a visual artist working primarily in painting and printmaking. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Painting from Banaras Hindu University (2017) and a Master’s in Printmaking from the S.N. School of Arts, University of Hyderabad (2019).
Singh has been recognized with the Kalasakshi Foundation Award (2018) and the Tata Trust International Award for the Student Biennale at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2019). He has participated in numerous workshops and residencies, including the Utsaah Barbil Project (2019), the On-site Workshop and Exhibition by FICA and Serendipity Arts Foundation (2019), and the Inter-College Multidisciplinary Student Art Workshop at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan (2018).
His recent exhibitions include Call to Disorder (FICA & Serendipity Arts Festival, 2019), Khoj Peers Share (2019), the Student Biennale at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2018), and the Rajya Lalit Kala Akademi exhibition in Lucknow (2018). Singh is currently based in Kurmuri, Bihar.