Dear All,

The Department of Visual Arts is delighted to invite you to the fourth talk in the Visual Arts Colloquium Series, Monsoon 2026.

Title of the Talk: IMAGE, PERCEPTION AND CONSTRUCTED REALITIES

Speaker:  Gigi Scaria, multidisciplinary artist
Date: Friday, 30 October, 2026
Venue: Visual Arts Studio (near sports block)

Synopsis:

Every settlement, dwelling presents itself as an image: a skyline, a master plan, a promise. In his practice over two decades, Gigi Scaria has asked what lies behind these images and who is left out of them. Moving between painting, sculpture, video and installation, he turns to architecture as a social record. Buildings, for him, carry the aspirations, hierarchies and prejudices of the people who make and inhabit them. Having himself migrated from rural Kerala to Delhi, he approaches the city as both an insider and an outsider. He is alert to the rapid demolition, rebuilding and displacement that reshape urban life, and to the sense of non-belonging that comes with them.

In this talk, Scaria reflects on how images shape what we see and accept as real, and how that perception is built, often quietly, through the spaces around us. Drawing on works that move between memory, the present moment and speculative futures, he considers how the “ideal city” is constructed, who it serves, and what is lost or displaced in the process. The talk offers a look at how an artist can unsettle these constructions, so that we begin to question what we take for granted in the world we see.

About the Artist:

Gigi Scaria was born in southern Kerala, India, in 1973. In 1995, after completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, Scaria moved to New Delhi where he undertook a Master of Fine Arts at Jamia Millia University. While both of his degrees were in the discipline of Painting, he has developed a cross-media practice. Scaria works across painting, photography, installation, sculpture, and video. His work explores issues of urban development, particularly in relation to migration, economic development and urban architecture. He is interested in the quality of social space in a drastically changing urban environment, with concomitant implications on psychological experience. Since 2000, Scaria has exhibited widely in India, and has participated in major exhibitions and residency programs internationally including in Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the USA.

Work represented in major curated exhibitions and biennales including Venice, Singapore, Kochi-Muziris Biennales; Smart Museum, Chicago; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Kunstverein Frankfurt; Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; Kunsthaus Bern; Fredric Jameson Gallery, Duke University and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. Work also exhibited in curated exhibitions at National Gallery of Modern Art (Mumbai), Jawahar Kala Kendra (Jaipur) and Lalit Kala Academy (Chennai and New Delhi.

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We look forward to having you with us for the talk. 

Warm regards,

Visual Arts Department