LATITUDE 28 Presents To look, and to look again at Art Dubai 2025

Poster Credit: LATITUDE 28

This exhibition grapples with flux. It moves in gestures of tension and release—between material and illusion, inheritance and reinvention, recognition and estrangement. The works assembled here refuse containment, slipping between thresholds of the seen and the unseen, the personal and the political, the traditional and the disruptive. They demand a different kind of seeing—not passive observation but an active exchange, where perception is constantly tested, shifted, and redefined.

To Look, and To Look Again brings together a group of contemporary artists whose practices question the visible and surface-bound, inviting viewers to look beneath and beyond. Beneath each artwork lies another—an accumulation of marks, stories, and absences. Like sediment, meaning builds in layers: through memory, erosion, fracture, and return. This is not just a visual experience, but an archaeological one. What we see is shaped by what came before—what was buried, forgotten, or refused. The past hums beneath our feet, pressing upward, reshaping the present.

Sanket Viramgami, Untitled, 2025, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches

Some artists approach this space through a deconstruction of form. Farhat Ali splices visual languages together—miniature, pop, and mass culture—to expose the seams of constructed narratives. Noor Ali Chagani structures longing into brick and mortar, where walls become symbols of both shelter and separation. Sudipta Das constructs fragile paper sculptures that embody the tension between permanence and precarity, displacement and home. Sanket Viramgami merges Persian, Indian, and contemporary idioms into surreal, layered landscapes where time and tradition collapse. Viraj Khanna manipulates textile and embroidery to blur artifice and identity—each stitch an interrogation of power and privilege.

Others explore the instability of narrative itself. Waswo X. Waswo stages identity as a performance, exposing the rehearsed nature of selfhood. Ketaki Sarpotdar lets fable unravel, allowing memory and myth to bleed into one another. Gopa Trivedi inscribes time onto surface, dissolving the divide between personal history and collective memory. Shalina Vichitra uses the language of cartography to map displacement and belonging, where territories shift and borders breathe. Waseem Ahmed reinterprets traditional forms through a socio-political lens, subverting historical motifs to challenge power and visibility. Some artists turn to material itself as a site of resistance. Ravinder Reddy Gavva distorts figuration toward excess, stretching beauty until it fractures into critique. Maryam Baniasadi reimagines the environment not as setting, but as force—where decay and regeneration are bound in constant, entangled motion. Khadim Ali, informed by the trauma of forced migrations, threads together miniature painting traditions and contemporary conflict to explore the interplay of power, memory, and exile.

Maryam Baniasadi, Call for Spring, 2024, Gouache on wasli, 6.5 x 8 inches (12 x 14 inches)

Across these works, boundaries break and reform. Surfaces refuse stasis. What is erased lingers as an imprint. Meaning is never fixed—it unfolds in motion, through the act of looking, and looking again.

To see, then, is to negotiate: between knowing and unknowing, certainty and ambiguity, the visible and the implied. In this space, looking becomes an excavation. These works do not offer resolution—they open fault lines. The image is only the beginning. Beneath it: gestures rephrased, histories resurfaced, maps redrawn.

The challenge is not just to see—but to return.

To look, and to look again.

–Curatorial Text by Khushboo Jain

Preview
April 16, 2025 | 2 – 9 PM
April 17, 2025 | 2 – 9 PM

Booth No.
B13 ( Arena – Hall1)

Venue
Madinath Jumeirah, Jumeirah, Beach Road AI Sufouh1, Dubai, UAE

Public Days
April 18, 2025 | 2 – 9 PM
April 19, 2025 | 2 – 9 PM
April 20, 2025 | 12PM – 6 PM

Artists
Farhat Ali, Gopa Trivedi, Ketaki Sarpotdar, Khadim Ali, Maryam Baniasadi, Noor Ali Chagani, Ravinder Reddy Gavva, Sanket Viramgami, Shalina Vichitra, Sudipta Das, Viraj Khanna, Waseem Ahmed, Waswo X. Waswo

Website
www.latitude28.com

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/latitude_28/

Contact
latitude28@gmail.com

About LATITUDE 28

Established in 2010, LATITUDE 28 has redefined contemporary gallery practice with its lateral, avant-garde approach. The gallery stands as a vanguard in nurturing and showcasing emerging South Asian artists by championing experimental material-based practices while fostering meaningful connections among stakeholders -artists, collectors, patrons, arts professionals, and enthusiasts. By prioritising mentoring and capacity building, it shapes creative practices, through programs that drive cultural discourse across the region and beyond. 

The gallery’s commitment to inclusivity and accessibility makes it a critical nexus for cultural exchange, connecting artists with leading institutions worldwide. Through curated exhibitions that weave together art, history, and socio-political narratives, LATITUDE 28 facilitates an understanding of the forces shaping contemporary society. This approach ensures that each exhibition is a dynamic, immersive experience that engages and challenges audiences.

As an incubator of innovative artistic expressions, the gallery facilitates dynamic exchanges through site-specific artworks, artist talks, and immersive curatorial experiences, setting new standards for what galleries can achieve. Its influence in shaping artistic discourse and inspiring collections is felt across continents, making LATITUDE 28 an essential player in global cultural conversations.

Under the strategic leadership of Founder and Director Bhavna Kakar—also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of TAKE on Art, South Asia’s premier contemporary art publication—LATITUDE 28 has cultivated a robust network of collectors and patrons. This network extends deeply into the Global artistic ecosystems, bridging continental divides and enhancing cross-cultural dialogues.

(Text and images courtesy of LATITUDE 28)


Leave a Reply

Discover more from Asian Art Contemporary

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading