MAG Contemporary is pleased to announce Dewasi Surendra as the recipient of the MAGC Grant 2026.
Selected from the final grant shortlist, Surendra receives the grant for a painting practice marked by quiet intensity, emotional depth and a sustained engagement with solitude, atmosphere and the psychological charge of space.
Based in Baroda, Surendra's work explores isolation, absence and emotional tension, often placing figures within expansive, atmospheric settings. For him, space is never just a backdrop, it becomes an active presence, revealing the inner condition of the figure and the quiet pressures that shape human experience.
His work is currently on view as part of Pressure Systems, MAG Contemporary's Young Artist Grant Show, curated by Yash Vikram.
Dewasi Surendra (b. 2002) is a visual artist based in Baroda, India, whose practice is rooted in painting. He completed his MVA in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, in 2025, following a BFA in Painting from Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, in 2023. Surendra's work explores isolation, solitude and emotional tension, often placing figures within expansive, atmospheric spaces. Through oil and pastel, he considers the relationship between the individual and their surroundings, using light, shadow, texture and spatial emptiness to evoke states of introspection, absence and quiet unease. For Surendra, the space surrounding the figure is not merely a backdrop but an active element that reveals the emotional and psychological condition of the subject.
Surendra has exhibited in group exhibitions including Baroda Unbound: City as Studio at Exhibit 320, Delhi (2025), the Annual Degree Show at MSU Baroda (2025), Where the Light Gets Out at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda (2024), and Artdent "We Are the Future" at Surat School of Fine Arts (2023). His work has also been presented in the Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship Displays at MSU Baroda (2023, 2024) and Kala Mahotsav at VNSGU, Surat (2022). His residencies include the Indigo Art Museum, Ahmedabad (2025) and the Arthshila x Anant Art Foundation residency at Arthshila Art Studios, Parivartan (2026).
