Waswo X Waswo
(b. 1953)
Waswo X. Waswo’s photographic self-portraiture has been a tactic of mild humour employed to signal the self-awareness of his practice. His black-and-white portraits are tinted and painted by his Indian collaborators, further complicating the ever-evolving narrative. In his new works, Waswo collaborates with R. Vijay. These works are collectively called The Intruder, where the anonymous fedora man of their long-running miniature series takes a seeming leap back in time, implausibly landing within the world of George Francklin Atkinson’s Curry and Rice, prints that were popular during British Colonial days. Painting directly upon these hundred-year-old vintage prints, they seek to subvert, alter, and play with their narratives and portrayals, which are oddly akin to their own, though also vastly different. Waswo has lived and traveled in India for over twenty years, and he has made his home in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for the past seventeen.
He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Center for Photography, and Studio Marangoni, The Centre for Contemporary Photography in Florence, Italy. Waswo is one of the few contemporary artists with a roster of books under his belt, including India Poems: The Photographs, published by Gallerie Publishers in (2006); Men of Rajasthan, published by Serindia Contemporary in 2011 (hardcover 2014); Photowallah, published by Tasveer, India, in (2016); Gauri Dancers, Mapin, (2019); and Karkhana: A Studio in Rajasthan, Mapin, (2022).
His recent exhibitions include ‘An Alternative Contemporary’ at the Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts (2025); India Art Fair with LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2025, 2023 & 2022); Art Dubai with LATITUDE 28, Dubai (2025, 2023 & 2022); ‘Fragments of the Future’ curated by Shalini Passi presented by Ajio Luxe Wkend at Jio World Garden, BKC, Mumbai (2025); ‘Elsewhere—In Northeast India’, a solo exhibition by Chandan Bez Baruah, curated by Waswo X. Waswo at Shridharani Art Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, presented by Bhavna Kakar at LATITUDE 28 (2024). Waswo’s solo shows ‘Heaven and that other place’ at Galerie Isa in Mumbai (2024); ‘Gauri Dancers,’ presented by LATITUDE 28 at Museo Camera, Gurugram (2021); ‘We are Always Working,’ LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2020); ‘Photowallah,’ Tasveer/Tarq, Mumbai (2017); and ‘Confessions of an Evil Orientalist,’ Gallery Espace, New Delhi (2011). Select group shows include Art SG with LATITUDE 28, Singapore (2023); ‘Residues & Resonance’ with LATITUDE 28, Artissima (Hub India), MAO (Museo d’Arte Orientale), Turin, Italy (2021); ‘Goa: A Time That Was’ curated by Leandre D’Souza, Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, Goa (2021); ‘Cartography of Narratives’, LATITUDE 28 at Bikaner House New Delhi (2019); ‘Babur ki Gai’ curated by Adwait Singh and Bhavna Kakar, LATITUDE 28, New Delhi (2018); ‘Laughing in the Vernacular’, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai (2017); ‘All You Need is Love’, Mori Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (2013); ‘Convergence: New Art from India and the Diaspora’, William Benton Museum of Art, USA (2013). The artist’s hand-painted photographs and other creations are represented by LATITUDE 28. The artist lives and works in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
The artist is represented by LATITUDE 28, New Delhi, India.
