Oindrilla Maity Surai

Oindrilla Maity Surai at the venue of Beyond the Edge, Kolkata, in January 2024.

Oindrilla Maity Surai (born 1978) She has curated exhibitions beyond the paradigms of the commercial gallery. She has also participated in several community- based art projects as an artist.

Work

Curation Oindrilla Maity Surai has curated Erasures and Resistances (January, 2024) for the first edition of Beyond the Edge, Kolkata, the first ever public art exhibition proposed on a biennale model in the city in terms of production of meaning and knowledge, orbiting around research and experimentation. The exhibition, which aimed at 're-introducing larger and pressing political and aesthetic concerns relevant to the country today' How Tomorrow Might Be (2021) another exhibition curated by Surai for the second edition of the Behala Art Fest was conceptualized in the context of "the new citizenship thrust, the abrogation of the special status of Kashmir, the plight of migrant workers during the lockdown and the contentious farm laws". She curated Tracing a Human Trail: Metaphors of the Frontiers at Khoj, New Delhi (2010–'11), for the first curatorial residency programme in the country, juried by Geeta Kapur and Anita Dube. Her commercial shows include Whose History? Which Stories? ((2012), Shrine Empire, New Delhi) which explores how "The natural human urge to connect with each other through myths, helps in identifying the patterns of thought. It is also an attempt to trace the patterns, tendencies and future moorings of visual art through its current traits,". Facets of a People was curated for Gallery OED, Kochi, (2009) orbiting around the portrayal of the vast expanse of a collective psyche featured the work of Rajan Krishnan, T. M.Azis among others. Though her earliest curatorial ventures took place in the commercial galleries, Surai has always shown a preponderance of curating exhibitions in the public sphere.

Writings Oindrilla Maity Surai writes in Bangla and English. Bangla Boier Drishtijagat O Vidyasagarer Bhavna, an essay on Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, was published by Ananda Publishers. Her essay, Socio-Spatial Dialectics and the Right to the City on the practices of Bengali visual artists with a history of the Partition has been brought out by the Partition Studies Quarterly. Among her translational work, An Answer to Today's Crisis: A Leninist View by Slavoj Žižek in Bangla was published by Swaraantar''. Very recently, Sangbad Pratidin has featured one of her essays, দুর্গাপুজোর শিল্প-সমারোহ আদৌ কি পাবলিক-আর্ট? on the making of art in the realm of Durga Puja on its digital portal, Robbar.in. Two of her essays, বিজ্ঞাপন শিল্প, উত্তর আধুনিকতা ও অন্নদার 'মুন্সীয়ানা' and ইন্দুবালার খেরোর খাতা featuring in the same digital portal, center around decolonization through modern Indian advertisements and decolnization through epistemic shift, respectively. She has also written on art and culture for children.

Awards and grants Surai is the first recipient of the Art ScribesAward (2011) from India for her writings on visual arts She was also a participant of the first curatorial residency at Khoj International Artists Association, New Delhi, supported by the India Foundation for the Arts, Bengaluru (2010).