Experimenter Gallery

Experimenter, Hindustan Road, installation view, Sanchayan Ghosh, Reversed Perspective: 3 Conjunctions, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist and Experimenter, Kolkata.

Experimenter was launched in 2009 with a vision to create a platform for the visual arts beyond the conventional white cube format.[2] The co-founders of the gallery had a long-harboured dream to work together and left their corporate careers behind to fulfill the same. They thought of Kolkata, the city they grew up in, as an ideal place to open a gallery that would push boundaries, raise questions and bring to Kolkata a global experience of contemporary art.[4]

The original location of the gallery is its Hindustan Road space that was established in 2009. On 28 February 2018, Experimenter launched its second gallery at Ballygunge Place.[5] Both spaces now run simultaneously, allowing the gallery to build on its multifaceted programmes. Both of these galleries are located in century-old buildings that re-imagine their purpose as contemporary spaces ensconced within heritage structures, in line with the interests of the directors in preserving architectural precincts of the city.

• Adip Dutta
• Ayesha Sultana
• Bani Abidi
• Biraaj Dodiya
• CAMP
• Julien Segard
• Kanishka Raja
• Krishna Reddy
• Mehreen Murtaza
• Moyra Davey
• Naeem Mohaiemen
• Prabhakar Pachpute
• Praneet Soi
• Radhika Khimji
• Rathin Barman
• Raqs Media Collective
• Sahil Naik
• Sakshi Gupta
• Samson Young
• Sanchayan Ghosh
• Sohrab Hura
• Soumya Sankar Bose

• 2009 – Group exhibition, Freedom Is Notional by Bani Abidi, Naeem Mohaiemen, Shilpa Gupta.[6]
• 2010 – Group exhibition, This is Unreal by Raqs Media Collective, Susanta Mandal, Yamini Nayar.[7][8]
• 2011 – Tino Sehgal’s first solo in India This Situation, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut//Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata; The Young Man Was, Naeem Mohaiemen’s debut solo and his first solo in India.[9]
• 2012 – Rathin Barman’s debut solo And My Eyes Filled with Sand…[10]
• 2013 – The Land Eaters, Prabhakar Pachpute’s first solo held in collaboration with Clark House Initiative;[11] First show of the exhibition series, Filament by Amar Kanwar, CAMP, Naeem Mohaiemen, Omer Fast;[12] The Indian premiere of Bani Abidi’s body of works Then it was Moulded Anew.[13]
• 2014 – Ayesha Sultana’s debut solo Outside the Field of View;[14][15] Sanchayan Ghosh’s second solo at the gallery, Reversed Perspective: 3 Conjunctions;[16] Group exhibition, Waiting for the Wind.[17][18]
• 2015 – As if – I, Rock/Paper/Scissors - first of the four-part retrospective exhibition series (As if) by CAMP; Anywhere but Here, Julien Segard’s debut solo;[19] Praneet Soi’s debut solo exhibition Srinagar.[20]
• 2016 – Samson Young’s debut show in India, Mastery of Language Affords Remarkable Power;[21][22] Edition Maker, a Krishna Reddy retrospective.[23]
• 2017 – Sahil Naik’s debut solo Ground Zero;[24] Photographer Sohrab Hura’s debut solo Sweet Life.[25]
• 2018 – I Wish to Let You Fall off My Hands, Chapter I by Bani Abidi & Naeem Mohaiemen;[26] Experimenter Ballygunge Place, inaugural show, I Wish to Let You Fall off My Hands, Chapter II;[27] Soumya Sankar Bose’s debut solo Full Moon on a Dark Night;[28] Drawn from Practice - a dialogue across practices and spaces, shown simultaneously at both Experimenter galleries;[29] Moyra Davey’s first solo in India, Bring My Garters / Do Nothing.[30]
• 2019 – Experimenter’s 10th anniversary show, group exhibition Searching for Stars Amongst the Crescents;[31] First Experimenter Outpost iteration, Let’s Sing an Old Song by Soumya Sankar Bose;[32] To a New Form - solo by the late Indian master printmaker sculptor, Krishna Reddy.[33]
• 2020 – Photographer Sohrab Hura’s second solo Spill;[34] Biraaj Dodiya’s debut solo Stone is a Forehead;[35] First online exhibition, Filament Online Film Exhibition, Part 1.[36]
• 2021 – Adip Dutta’s works and Meera Mukherjee’s lesser known practices exhibited as Nestled;[37][38] A solo exhibition of paintings Bare Bones by Ayesha Sultana, an artist’s solitary practice working in isolation, amidst pandemic;[39] Photographer Soumya Sankar Bose’s second solo, an ongoing body of work on the Marichjhapi massacre, Where the Birds Never Sing.[40]

Experimenter participates in the leading art fairs of the world including Art Basel in Basel (since 2013), Art Basel in Hong Kong (since 2014), Frieze Art Fair in London (since 2010), Frieze Art Fair in New York (since 2012), FIAC Paris (2016–18), Art Dubai (since 2011) and India Art Fair, New Delhi (since 2011).

The publishing wing of the gallery, Experimenter Books, was launched in 2016 to function as a publishing partner for its artists.[3] It works towards producing artist-books, monographs and art objects. It also explores the vast creative possibilities of bookmaking, displays particular interest in design and closely collaborates with artists to conceive and envisage each book. One can also find the gallery’s annual catalogues under this initiative alongside the Experimenter Labs Reader, both of which are available for free online access for anyone wanting to give it a read. The Experimenter Labs Reader is a guest-edited anthology of prose, poetry, essays, images by artists, activists, musicians, poets, writers, photographers, philosophers.[1]

In 2014, Experimenter won the ‘Contemporary Gallery of the Year (Exhibiting young artists)’ award at the Forbes Art Awards 2014.[54]

In 2016, Experimenter won the 'Gallery of the Year' award at the India Today Art Awards 2016.[55]

In 2020, Experimenter co-founders Prateek and Priyanka Raja were named in the ArtReview Power 100 list of the ‘Most influential people in the contemporary art world’.[56]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Experimenter Gallery.

• Official Website
• Experimenter Labs