Vikrant Bhise

Vikrant Bhise is a visual artist who lives and works in Mumbai, India. At the forefront of struggle against caste-based domination and its vertiginous implications on land, liberty and labour, Vikrant’s artistic practice iterates his commitment to the revolutionary spirit inherent in the Ambedkarite consciousness. Working across monumental scrolls and multi-panelled paintings incandescent with the light of resistance that once illuminated the murals of post-revolution Mexico; and smaller works with ink on paper which hold the urgency of proximate witnessing of the human condition in the vein of Hore, Vikrant’s iconography is informed and deliberate in its radicality. In Seeking Begumpura, Gail Omvedt identifies both reason and ecstasy as recurrent forces in the envisioning of utopias, the alternatives which orient our struggles. In Vikrant’s practice, the fabric of revolutionary time is seamless, weaving civic resistance in the present such as movements to uphold constitutional values and labour rights, the power of collective action and dissent in the pursuit for justice, with key texts and figures from history. Vikrant is presently working on a series on the legacy of the Dalit Panther movement.