The Urban Traditional: Where Tradition Meets the Contemporary City
What happens to tradition when it enters the city?
The Urban Traditional, an exhibition presented by Ochre Art and curated by Georgina Maddox, brings together ten contemporary artists who explore this question through practices rooted in, and informed by, India’s diverse visual and cultural traditions. Rather than treating tradition as a fixed inheritance, the exhibition considers it as something fluid—capable of shifting, adapting and acquiring new meanings as it encounters urbanisation, global circulation and contemporary ways of living.
Curated by Georgina Maddox, the exhibition brings together ten artists who reinterpret folk and traditional visual languages through the lens of urban life, globalisation and contemporary practice.
Featuring Ankon Mitra, Avijit Mukherjee, Anirul ,Hiral Bhagat, Manisha Agrawal, Madhu Kuruva, Priya Janghu, Sangam Vankhade, Srini Chowdhury and Vasundhara Tiwari Broota, the exhibition brings together varied approaches to making, drawing from references that range from miniature painting, stepwells and oral lore to calligraphy, wall hangings, paper scrolls, chandeliers and graffiti.
The references, however, are deliberately not presented as literal reproductions of the past. Instead, they are embedded within contemporary practices, allowing familiar cultural vocabularies to emerge in unexpected forms.
At the heart of the exhibition is an inquiry into what happens when modes of making rooted in local ritual, craft and communal life encounter the centrifugal forces of urban living and globalisation. Some traditions may be amplified, others attenuated; some may be translated into entirely new visual languages. The Urban Traditional occupies this space between continuity and rupture, asking viewers to consider what is retained, what is transformed and what is invented along the way.
Curator Georgina Maddox describes the exhibition as “a focused inquiry into the reconfiguration of how urbanization and globalization have reconfigured the languages of making.” Through the deliberate juxtaposition of diverse visual references, she seeks to map a movement from “what was” to “what is”, while opening up questions around continuity, translation, reinvention and cultural memory.
The exhibition has been developed collaboratively by Maddox and Vipula Bhrany Monga, Founder & Curator of Ochre Art, bringing together artists already associated with the gallery alongside artists suggested by Maddox from her previous curatorial engagements. This coming together of perspectives is central to the exhibition itself: a negotiation between inherited forms and contemporary realities.
“For Ochre Art, our vision has always been to nurture creativity while honoring authenticity,” says Vipula Bhrany Monga. “The Urban Traditional, curated by Georgina Maddox, resonates deeply with this mission. It brings together artists who reinterpret folk and traditional styles with contemporary flair, reflecting the inevitable shifts brought about by urban living.”
For Monga, the exhibition is ultimately a dialogue between past and present. The works acknowledge the complexities of cultural dilution and commercialisation while also recognising the creative possibilities that emerge through hybridity. “Tradition is not static; it evolves, adapts, and finds new versions in modern contexts,” she adds.
This idea of evolution becomes the exhibition’s defining thread. Across different materials, techniques and visual vocabularies, the artists engage with cultural memory without being bound by it. The resulting works occupy a space where the familiar can become unfamiliar, and where inherited forms are reconsidered through contemporary sensibilities.
The Urban Traditional therefore does not seek to resolve the tension between tradition and modernity. Instead, it places the two in conversation. It asks how artists can remain connected to cultural roots while responding to a rapidly changing world—and whether authenticity lies in preserving the past or in allowing it to evolve.
As contemporary cities increasingly become spaces of cultural convergence, the exhibition proposes that tradition may not disappear under the pressure of modernity. It may simply change shape.
About Ochre Art
Ochre Art was established with a vision to provide a platform for emerging artistic voices while preserving the integrity of cultural memory. The gallery works towards creating conversations between traditional visual vocabularies and contemporary artistic practices, encouraging artists to explore new forms of expression while remaining attentive to questions of authenticity, heritage and cultural continuity.
Artists
Ankon Mitra
Avijit Mukherjee
Anirul I
Hiral Bhagat
Manisha Agrawal
Madhu Kurvua
Priya Janghu
Sangam Vankhade
Srini Chowdhury
Vasundhara Tiwari Broota
Curated by: Georgina Maddox
Presented by: Ochre Art
Founder & Curator: Vipula Bhrany Monga
Exhibition Details
The Urban Traditional
Venue: Alliance Frances, New Delhi
Dates: 10th-13th September 2026
Timings: 11 AM – 7 PM
