Collections & Research Staff
Deepali Dewan
Curator
South Asian Arts and Culture
B.A. (Honours), Art History, McGill University, 1993
M.A., Art History, University of Minnesota, 1995
Ph.D., Art History, University of Minnesota, 2001
Deepali Dewan is an Art Historian of South Asian visual culture. She joined the Royal Ontario Museum in January 2002 as Associate Curator of South Asian Civilizations. Prior to joining the ROM, she worked at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Asia Society in New York. She also served as visiting instructor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at Carleton College, Minnesota, where she taught courses on the history of South Asian art and contemporary arts.
Deepali is cross-appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Toronto, is a part of the graduate faculty, and is affiliated to the Centre for South Asian Studies. She is also part of the Toronto Photography Seminar.
Deepali's research interests span the 19th- and 20th-century visual cultures of South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora. Her work on colonial South Asia examines the links between early art education, the circulation of objects, and the production of knowledge in the discipline of art history. Her research on 20th-century art focuses on the work of specific artists as a way to begin to map the larger picture of post-colonial visual practice. Most recently, her research has focused on history and theory of photography in India.
She has received fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the American Institute of Indian Studies, the College Art Association, and the MacArthur Program/Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change.
Recent Publications
| In press | "Deen Dayal: Vision, Modernity, and Photographic Culture in Nineteenth-Century South Asia." Co-authored with Deborah Hutton. New Delhi: Mapin and The Alkazi. |
| In press | "A Lover's Discourse: the art of Anita Dube." Young Indians. Ed. Gayatri Sinha. New Delhi: Bodhi Press. |
| In press | "Photography at its Limits: The Dayal Studio’s Coronation Album 1903." In Julie Codell, ed. Photography and the Delhi Coronation Durbars, 1877-1911. New York: Alkazi Collection of Photography. |
| 2009 | "Present Past: Exploring Contemporary Miniature Painting," In Bazgasht: Traditional Methods and Modern Practices. Toronto: Art Gallery of Mississauga, 2009, pp. 11-18. |
| 2007 | "Aesthetic Dichotomies and Conceptual Terrains in Sylvat Aziz's Mother of all Postcards." Nukta. vol. 2, no. 1. 99-104. |
| 2007 | Post Object. Ex. Cat. Toronto: Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Scarborough. |
| 2005 | Modernity Re-mix: Playing in the Archive. Ex. cat., Toronto: Gallery 44 and South Asian Visual Arts Collective, n.p. |
| 2004 | "The Body at Work: Colonial Art Education and the Figure of the 'Native Craftsman'." In Satadru Sen and James Mills, eds., Confronting the Body: The Experience of Physicality in Modern South Asia. London: Anthem Press, pp. 118-134. |
| 2003 | "Scripting South Asia’s Visual Past: The Journal of Indian Art and Industry and the Production of Knowledge in the Late Nineteenth Century." In Julie Codell, ed. Imperial Co-Histories: National Identities and the British and Colonial Press. London: Associated University Presses, pp. 29-44. |
| 2003 | Sheherazade: Risking the Passage, Contemporary Art by Muslim Women. Ex. cat., Minneapolis: WARM, 20 p. |
| 2003 | "Tender Metaphor: The Art of Zarina Bhimji." In Gilane Tawadros and Sarah Campbell, eds. Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes. Ex. Cat. Venice Biennale. London: inIVA, pp. 131-138. |
Galleries
Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery
ROM Images
South Asia
Research Projects
Photography in India, c. 1847 to the present
Crafting Knowledge: Colonial Art Schools in South
Asia
Other Links
New Stories - South Asia
ROM Friends of South Asia (FSA)
University of Toronto Faculty Members
Podcasts
Women in South Asian Art - February 15, 2008
Dr. Deepali Dewan, Curator of South Asian Arts and Culture, discusses representations of women in South Asian Art using artifacts on display in the Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery.
Video Podcast (19.3MB, 5m 06s)
Contact Information
Department of World Cultures
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen's Park
Toronto, ON
M5S 2C6
Tel: 416.586.5698
Fax: 416.586.5877
E-mail: Deepali Dewan or
World Cultures
Dr. Deepali Dewan, Ondaatje Gallery, ROM, February 2008
Deepali with her daughter Kryshna at Gala Opening of the Ondaatje Gallery, February 2008. Photo Credit: Jeff Speed
