Karam Singh - Aqua Glisser I

"India Contemporary curated by Veer Hooda" presents a rare opportunity for collectors and art lovers in Europe to acquire original works by highly established Indian contemporary artists, and to connect with one of the most vibrant and fast-growing art markets in the world.

India Contemporary is a curated initiative that brings leading Indian contemporary artists directly to European collectors. Each artist is selected personally by Veer Hooda for artistic depth, originality and long-term relevance, and each work is an original, sourced from the artist's own studio and shipped with full documentation. The programme exists because the distance between the Indian studio and the European wall has, until now, been the main thing standing between these artists and the collectors who would want them. India Contemporary closes that distance: no intermediary market, no re-sale mark-up, direct access at an early stage.

India's contemporary art scene is in an exceptional moment - dynamic, intellectual, many-voiced, and growing quickly in both global visibility and investment value. With rising interest from international collectors and institutions, this is a compelling time for European collectors to engage with Indian contemporary art at a pivotal stage of its ascent.

The works are offered exclusively by auction on Catawiki.

The works are curated in Vienna by Vijit Veer Hooda and shipped to you directly from the artist's studio in India. Buyers in the EU enjoy 0% customs duty on original works of art imported from India.

About the Artist: Karam Singh

Karam Singh lives and works in New Delhi. He is known for deep, texturally rich canvases that explore human emotion, isolation and resilience against the natural elements, and that hold the external world and the internal psychological landscape in the same frame. His signature style blends deep palettes, sweeping palette-knife strokes and intense lighting to catch figures and natural motifs suspended mid-motion.

Artistic vision

Most painters of the figure look for the pose. Singh looks for the instant before the pose resolves - the body already committed to the water and not yet arrived, the flower already open and the light on the pond already changing. He has a trained command of fine, representational drawing, and he spends it on the one moment that will not hold still. The result is a body of work that reads from across a room as pure light and movement, and at close range as a surface built stroke by loaded stroke, the knife marks and the drag of the brush left where they fell.

The two bodies of work offered here are the two halves of that project. *Aqua Glisser* is the human one: swimmers and divers seen through, under and against water, the figure dissolving into the element that carries it. The *Himalayan* paintings are the other half: lotus ponds and flowering thickets in which the figure either steps back entirely or is folded into the blossom until only a face remains. Both are about the same thing - a body meeting a force larger than itself, and the strange calm that comes from stopping the fight.

A public artist

Singh's artistic philosophy centres on the democratisation of art: taking high-concept gallery work out of the gallery and into sprawling public infrastructure, where it meets everyday commuters rather than collectors.

He has worked on it at scale. Working with a team of artists under an initiative of Artists Network India and the Government, he has been commissioned for works in international airports and public places across the country. His largest public commission is a multi-panelled mural housed permanently at Jaipur International Airport. Beyond Jaipur, his larger-than-life canvases and installations are held in prominent institutional lobbies across New Delhi, including corporate headquarters in Cyber City and government-backed cultural centres, and his commission list includes the Home Ministry Office of the Central Government of India and the India Heritage Institute.

Exhibitions

Solo: *Surge & Serenity*, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai (2024) - *The Deep Current*, Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi - *Echoes of Fluidity*, Kalaneri Art Gallery.

Group and biennales: *The Art of India* Annual Exhibit, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi - *Contemporary Visages*, Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata - *The Indian Abstraction Movement*, 2023.

Public and institutional commissions: Jaipur International Airport; airports and public places nationally, with Artists Network India and the Government; the Home Ministry Office of the Central Government of India; the India Heritage Institute; institutional and corporate lobbies in New Delhi.

About the Artwork

Artist: Karam Singh
Name: Aqua Glisser I
Year: 2026
Size: 90 x 120 cm
Technique: Acrylic on canvas

A woman enters the water head first and is caught at full stretch, arms thrown forward, hair fanning out behind her, her body a long diagonal running from the bottom left corner to the upper right. Above her the surface is a rolling ceiling of blue and rose cloud seen from beneath. To the left the sun comes through in a wide rake of gold, broken into vertical bars by the water; to the right the light fails and the blue goes deep and cold. Small bubbles trail from her shoulders and hands.

The whole picture is built on that one division - the lit half and the dark half - with the diver crossing from one into the other. Nothing in it is still. The water is worked in long directional strokes that follow the movement of the body, and the gold is laid on thickly enough to catch the light in the room.

The first painting of the series and the one that sets its terms: the figure is not swimming so much as being received.

Hand signed by the artist.

About Veer Hooda - ig: @vi_hov

Veer Hooda is an Indo-European (Austrian) contemporary artist based in Vienna, whose practice is shaped by a deep connection to his Indian roots and a great love for his now home, Europe.

Veer Hooda has exhibited across some of the top galleries and exhibitions in the world and recently finished his sold-out show at Art Basel Miami 2025. This year he will be exhibiting at, among others, the Venice Biennale 2026 and ArtExpo New York 2026, in multiple exhibitions across Europe and Austria, and returning to Art Basel Miami at the end of the year.

While his own work reflects a strong conceptual and material sensibility developed over years of creative and professional experience, Hooda is equally driven by a clear mission: to make outstanding Indian artistic talent more visible and accessible within the European art market. Positioned between India and Europe, he acts as a cultural bridge, offering early access to artists and narratives that are already gaining significant international recognition - a distinct insider perspective at a pivotal moment for Indian contemporary art.

Signed and authenticity: The work is hand signed by the artist, and a signed Certificate of Authenticity is provided with every work by India Contemporary by Vijit Veer Hooda.

Shipped from: This work is shipped from India and is fully insured on its way to the buyer.

Packaging & insurance: The painting is packaged professionally and shipped rolled in a tube. It arrives unstretched and will need to be restretched onto a frame on arrival - any framer will do this routinely.

Customs and duties: Import duty on original works of art is 0% in most EU countries. Some countries apply a reduced import VAT of 5-12% and/or a small clearance fee, payable by the buyer before delivery and in most cases settled online with the delivery company in a few minutes. We accompany the buyer through every step, from collection to the door, and are on hand for anything the process needs.