Vikram Divecha, born in Beirut and raised in Mumbai, is an artist who divides his time between New York and Dubai. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art from Columbia University in 2019 and is currently engaged in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program (2019-20). Divecha’s work frequently illuminates hidden systems, prompting reflections on agency, ethics, and value. He achieves this by interrogating the nature and methods of artistic creation, often extending the production process into the social sphere. This approach transforms his projects into platforms for forging new connections, where traditional notions of authorship and aesthetics are reexamined, and agency is redistributed. For Divecha, the creation of meaning is not confined to the audience’s reception of the artwork but is embedded within the social dynamics of its production. He seeks not just participation but an aesthetic engagement from those involved.
Central to Divecha’s practice is his concept of “found processes”—existing forces and capacities within governmental, social, economic, and industrial frameworks. By utilizing available materials, spaces, and labor, he introduces interventions that recalibrate the social and urban systems we navigate. For instance, his project Beej (2017) empowered municipal gardeners in Sharjah to explore agricultural possibilities, blending maintenance routines with local practices. In Train to Rouen (2017), Divecha orchestrated a five-minute delay of a Parisian train, an artistic gesture that interrogates our relationship with time, light, and the railway industry. In Warehouse Project (2016), he exchanged an exhibition space with a trading company, allowing market forces to dictate the aesthetic outcome and recontextualizing the flow of goods. His ongoing documentary Veedu (2016) delves into the architectural influences of Gulf design in Kerala, tracing the collaborative process between an architect and an Indian client through AutoCAD renderings. More recently, Divecha has turned his attention to museum displays, proposing a bold light-based intervention titled Gallery 354 (2019) for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Divecha’s interventions are not fleeting; they are deliberate, slow processes designed to outlast the immediate context of their exhibition, often fostering lasting social connections. Despite engaging with largely invisible systems, his works possess a distinct materiality and formal precision. His practice spans site-specific installations, public art, video, photography, and drawings.
His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including Towards Opacity at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai (2020); Second Hand at Jameel Arts Center, UAE (2019); Living Room: UIT (Use it Together) at ISCP, New York (2019); Who Are We Now? at the Land Art Mongolia 5th Biennial (2018); Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play at the National Pavilion UAE, 57th Venice Biennale (2017); Tamawuj at Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017); Co-Lab at Louvre Abu Dhabi (2017); Binary States India-UAE in Kochi (2016); Warehouse Project as part of the Alserkal Commission (2016); DUST at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2015); and Accented at Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (2015). Divecha was awarded the Middle East Emergent Artist Prize in 2014 and has contributed to projects such as InVisible, a public art commission by The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture in the same year.
