JCA Celebrates Its First Anniversary with a Landmark Year of Exhibitions in Jaipur

As Jaipur cements itself on the global cultural map, the Jaipur Centre for Art (JCA) marks its one-year anniversary with two pivotal exhibitions that reflect the institution’s ambitious vision and its role in shaping India’s contemporary art landscape. Opening November 9, 2025, the anniversary program debuts Ayesha Sultana’s “Fragility and Resilience”—a reimagined solo show first presented at Ishara Art Foundation—and the sixth edition of The Sculpture Park, now in its second season at the storied Jaigarh Fort. Together, they offer a compelling dialogue between material experimentation, cross-border collaboration, and Jaipur’s historic architectural context.

For travelers and art lovers alike, the milestone marks a defining moment: Jaipur Centre for Art is no longer a promising new destination—it is an essential stop in India’s expanding cultural circuit.

Ayesha Sultana: “Fragility and Resilience” Arrives at Jaipur Centre for Art

Presented in collaboration with the Ishara Art Foundation and supported by Experimenter, “Fragility and Resilience” marks a significant new chapter in the Bangladeshi artist Ayesha Sultana’s practice. Originally conceived for Ishara and curated by Sabih Ahmed, the exhibition has been reimagined for JCA’s heritage setting, expanding its material, spatial, and emotional resonance.

Exploring vulnerability as a powerful, generative force, Sultana’s works meditate on the tensions between strength and delicacy—ideas that feel especially urgent amid social, ecological, and personal transformation in the 21st century. Her wide-ranging practice includes hand-blown glass sculptures, oil paintings, watercolor studies on Japanese silk tissue, clay-coated paper works, and photographic compositions. At Jaipur Centre for Art, these pieces cultivate a new conversation between Jaipur’s historic architecture, shifting light, and the artist’s material sensitivity.

“Sultana’s works meditate on the tensions between strength and delicacy,”

Key series include:
“Breath Count” — where marks on clay-coated paper record the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, capturing time as lived experience.
“Threshold” — a hybrid photographic series juxtaposing the artist’s father’s imagery with her own, scratched and solarized to explore memory, erasure, and lineage.
“Miasms” and “Inhabiting Our Bodies” — tissue-based works evoking the turbulence of water and the delicate surface of skin.

Together, they underscore Sultana’s sustained inquiry into how fragility can itself become a structure of resilience. Her first solo in Jaipur, the exhibition extends an international dialogue that began in Dubai and now finds a new audience in the Pink City.

The Sculpture Park: A Contemporary Landmark at Jaigarh Fort

Also opening November 9 is the sixth edition of The Sculpture Park, presented in partnership with Saath Saath Arts. Now in its second season at Jaigarh Fort, the project remains one of the most influential platforms for contemporary sculpture in India. Against the rugged, panoramic landscape of the Aravalli hills, the park offers a rare open-air museum experience—blending monumental artworks with the fort’s historic architecture. This year’s edition continues to foreground both emerging and established voices, reinforcing Jaipur Centre for Art’s commitment to accessibility, public engagement, and cultural exchange.

A Year of Ambitious, Genre-Defining Programming

In just twelve months, JCA has delivered one of the most dynamic calendars of contemporary art programming in India. Its inaugural year includes:

A New Way of Seeing (Nov 2024 – Mar 2025) at Jaipur Centre for Art

Curated by Peter Nagy, the opening exhibition featured major voices such as Anish Kapoor, Dayanita Singh, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Alicja Kwade, LN Tallur, and Sean Scully. The show established JCA’s global perspective from day one and reflected the vision of co-founders HH Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur and Noelle Kadar.

India in Dialogue: Tradition & Transformation (May – Jun 2025)

Organized at Jaipur Centre for Art in collaboration with Whitewall, this group exhibition explored contemporary Indian art’s evolution across generations, featuring Rana Begum, Shilpa Gupta, Thukral & Tagra, Asim Waqif, and others. It also marked the launch of Whitewall’s India-focused Spring Artist Issue.

Artist’s Cinema (Jun – Jul 2025)

A six-week film program with Jaipur Centre for Art curated by Dr. Shwetal Ashvin Patel, presenting over 150 films and transforming the City Palace into a cinematic space for cross-regional storytelling.

Non-Residency (Aug – Oct 2025)

A first-of-its-kind collaboration with Los Angeles gallerist Rajiv Menon, this exhibition examined diasporic identity and cultural dislocation—marking JCA’s first initiative developed with a single curator and gallery.

Looking Ahead: JCA as a Global Cultural Connector

Reflecting on the milestone, Jaipur Centre for Art’s founders describe the anniversary not as a culmination, but as the beginning of a long-term vision to position Jaipur as a global center for contemporary culture. As Noelle Kadar notes, the aim is to create a site where “art continues to evolve and connect across borders,” while HH Sawai Padmanabh Singh emphasizes the goal of presenting exhibitions where “there is something for everyone to discover.”

With the debut of “Fragility and Resilience” alongside The Sculpture Park, Jaipur Centre for Arts anniversary signals a year defined by collaboration, reinvention, and international artistic exchange—establishing Jaipur as an essential destination for art-driven travel in 2025 and beyond.

“JCA’s anniversary signals a year defined by collaboration, reinvention, and international artistic exchange,”

Noelle Kadar with HH Sawai Padmanabh Singh at the Jaipur Centre for Art, photo by Lodovico Colli di Felizzano.