Hales is excited to announce that Sunil Gupta’s works from the 1987 series Exiles are now in the Museum Folkwang’s collection.
Over a career spanning four decades, Gupta has remained dedicated to advocating the visibility of his queer identity and Indian heritage, cultivating a powerfully influential practice which is simultaneously political and deeply personal. He was born in India in 1953 and migrated to Canada as a teenager in the late 1960s, moving to New York City in 1976. Gupta now lives and works in London. The artist’s experience of multiple cultures and his own lived experience is a point of departure for photographic works, born from a desire to see himself and others like him represented in art history.
In the series Exiles (1986-1987), commissioned by the Photographers' Gallery, Gupta returned to India and photographed gay men in front of a backdrop of famous tourist sites, the finished prints then presented alongside quotes from the subjects. Taken at a time when homosexuality was illegal in India, it was imperative for the artist to prove the existence of this community to himself and to the world. What is evident in this early project and has remained consistent in Gupta's practice is the use of photography as a conduit to meeting people, as he builds up a rapport with his subjects and finds new stories.
August 5, 2024
