In the Gallery: Prateek and Priyanka Raja Create an Art Ecosystem at Experimenter

The visionary duo Prateek and Priyanka Raja co-founded Experimenter in Kolkata, India in 2009, cultivating a shimmering cradle for contemporary artists to flourish alongside their local and international communities. Faithful to a synergistic program of highly relevant and ambitious presentations from diverse artists including Sakshi Gupta, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Raqs Media Collective, Sanchayan Ghosh, Naeem Mohaiemen, and Julien Segard, the industrious co-directors have brilliantly and successfully pushed the boundaries of the traditional gallery setting. Observing a lack of spaces in India where artists and thinkers could share meaningful ideas and spark vital new conversation, the two launched an Experimenter Curators’ Hub in the spirited city of Kolkata. A far-reaching triumph for over 15 years, the Hub is joined by a parade of multidimensional spaces, an inspired artist-book publishing platform, the non-profit Experimenter Learning Program, and more. 

This spring the gallery will exhibit work by Julien Segard, Aishwarya Arumbakkam, Rai, Rupali Patil, Sathish Kumar, and Shubhankar Chandere. Whitewall took the opportunity to converse with Prateek and Priyanka Raja about making balanced, sensitive decisions at every turn of the gallery’s evolution, nurturing a deep trust with the unique artists on their roster, and offering precious access to fascinating minds.

WHITEWALL: What was your initial vision for Experimenter, in both its holistic approach and day-to-day functionality?

PRATEEK & PRIYANKA RAJA: Experimenter began with a single-minded vision to work closely with artists of our times through whose practices we are able to uphold a program that is reflective of the moment we find ourselves in. It continues with the same vision it started with—to provide a mirror to our society—and often that view is fractured and fissured, or majestic and terrifying. 

WW: What was the process like founding a gallery together, and what unique perspectives might each bring to the undertaking? 

P&PR: In the beginning we felt we had unique strengths that would allow us to focus on key areas. However, very soon it became clear to us that our symbiotic strength in thinking of the program, and the way forward for our artists, and the gallery was completely intertwined. And there was a value to bring these multifaceted points of view to our conversations and decisions. Hence we do things together and weigh in with our colleagues. We think of Experimenter as an octopus, with one head and many simultaneous arms, reaching out in different directions, and the centrality of thought and deliberation is not only between us, the founders, but also the core team members as we work together at one long community table in Kolkata. We feel that this way—our strengths coalesce beautifully and what we end up with are balanced, sensitive decisions. 

Discovering Emerging Artists and Cultivating Life-Long Friendships at Experimenter 

WW: What overarching or nuanced qualities do you look for in the contemporary artists that you represent, and how do you go about discovering emerging or little-heard voices?

P&PR: This is truly something based on a wide range of feelings and deep research, some of which is unexplainable in words, and both overarching and nuanced at the same time. We look for voices that scratch beyond the surface and reveal something truly unique about the world we inhabit. 

“We look for voices that scratch beyond the surface and reveal something truly unique about the world we inhabit,”

Prateek and Priyanka Raja

We like to work with voices that work within the slippages of our contemporary moment, make us pause and think of our time, and pursue a language of their own. Artists have the incredible power to show us the world in its many hues, make us question all that we take for granted, and challenge the boundaries we have set for ourselves. 

WW: What kind of relationship do you cultivate with the artists on your roster?

P&PR: Our relationships with our artists are long-term and closely linked to their lives just like marriages, and there are several things at play when you keep that kind of relationship in mind. We are firstly friends, we most definitely have a similar value system, and we deeply trust each other; these basic tenets are at the core of these relationships. Then there are other things: we are often reading similar books, listening to similar music, sharing meals together in their studios or elsewhere in the world, and having intense philosophical and political conversations—aspects that are similar in any deep friendship. Of course, the work is central to the relationship and what the artist wants to reflect with their work is at the core of our thinking and our conversations with them. We are also rather old school in the sense that we take a long time to get into the relationship, sometimes remaining ardent admirers over years before deciding to move ahead. In all of this, we find ways to work together, always keeping artistic practice and intent unwavering. 

“We find ways to work together, always keeping artistic practice and intent unwavering,”

Prateek and Priyanka Raja

WW: How do you hope collectors engage with your forward-thinking artists?

P&PR: Much like us, we hope the collectors who engage with our artists also discover the magic that artists reveal through what they do. There is something sublime that artists do with their work, which could be simple but also complex. They can ignite certain emotions; their work can be moving, or even confrontational to the viewers. It is always deeply satisfying for us when collectors share this experience with us, and the artist, and, in most cases, follow the artist’s career over time in their collecting journey. 

“We hope the collectors who engage with our artists also discover the magic that artists reveal through what they do,”

Prateek and Priyanka Raja

The most exciting moments for us are when the collectors continue to be fascinated by the brilliance of the artist’s mind, often leading them to become close friends of the artists, too. 

Prateek and Priyanka Raja’s Experiment Curators Hub and Experimenter Colaba 

WW: How did you conceive of the annual “Experimenter Curators’ Hub” and how do you envision it engaging the local community as well as the international art landscape? 

P&PR: When we started in 2009, it was apparent to us quite soon that we needed to be more than merely a commercial gallery in India. In the absence of public spaces of contemporary art, private initiative was and continues to be important. We were seeing all these incredible exhibitions, speaking to curators who were making beautiful and thoughtful shows all over the world, but there was very little exchange of thoughts and ideas in India, and our audiences had minimal or no access to these fascinating minds. We also felt that if we needed to really grow the entire ecosystem, we needed to build a multidimensional support structure for it. There was and still is an urgent need to pause and take notice of what curators, writers, and thinkers are doing, find ways of dialogue, build a vocabulary of thought, and keep at its core a certain essence of learning and exchange. 

“There was and still is an urgent need to pause and take notice of what curators, writers, and thinkers are doing,”

Prateek and Priyanka Raja

Also, doing it in Kolkata makes all the more sense since it is a city with people who are extremely erudite, have a natural affinity for discussion and debate, and who can cross-reference between the arts, literature, history, popular culture, music, and politics. From our inception, we have always wanted our gallery to be much more than merely a passive space for viewing and rather an active space for learning—and the Experimenter Curators’ Hub has been a cornerstone of that work over the last 15 years.

WW: The gallery has expanded to additional spaces, including the third realm of “Experimenter Colaba” in Mumbai. What kind of critical dialogue do you spark here with the vibrant city?

P&PR: Our Mumbai gallery, Experimenter Colaba, was born out of sheer coincidence. But when we saw the space keeping our artists in mind, it made perfect sense to us. Mumbai has meaning for us in many ways. We spent our undergrad college years in Mumbai, and the city always had a special place for us personally. That apart, from the programming point of view, the possibilities that Mumbai offers are truly exceptional and completely aligned with our overall vision. 

“The possibilities that Mumbai offers are truly exceptional and completely aligned with our overall vision,”

Prateek and Priyanka Raja

It’s a city that is as diverse as one can get in India, a metropolis that is a symbol of the growing scale of our country but also of the imbalances that are immediately palpable. It has a largely migrant population, and is enmeshed in a complex politics of language and stratified society, and social & economic inequalities. It is the economic nerve centre of the country but also dotted with a post-industrial, abandoned cotton mill architecture that is a haunting reminder of labor and class struggles. These are aspects that we can address in a multitude of ways through the practices of our artists and aspects that we are personally very keen to explore and speak about through our program.