About
To support experimental artistic practice, facilitate international exchange and create a critical platform for contemporary art in South Asia.
India's leading experimental artist residency in Khirkee Extension, Delhi, since 1997. Connected to Triangle Arts International network. Annual Open Studio is one of Delhi's most significant contemporary art events.
Khoj was founded in 1997 following an international artists' workshop in New Delhi connected to Triangle Arts International. The founding artists established Khoj as a permanent organisation to sustain the experimental spirit of that gathering. The Khirkee Extension location, a south Delhi neighbourhood with a significant migrant community, has shaped the organisation's commitment to art as social practice. Community art projects, public interventions and neighbourhood collaborations sit alongside the international artist residency.
Founding & Leadership
Pooja Sood, Khoj's founding member and current Director, is a curator and art management consultant with an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management and an MA in Art History from Punjab University. Before co-founding Khoj she worked at Delhi's Eicher Gallery (1994-1998), where she curated over 20 exhibitions. She later served as Director-General of Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur (2015-2019), led the ARThink South Asia arts management and policy programme for over a decade, and sits on the boards and advisory committees of the Prince Claus Foundation, IFACCA and the Public Arts Trust of India. The other six founders, Anita Dube, Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher and Manisha Parekh among them, went on to become some of India's most internationally recognised contemporary artists in their own right.
Board of eight members, including founding artist Manisha Parekh
Initiatives & Portfolio
The core programme, providing studio space, production support and critical engagement for Indian and international artists across disciplines.
Annual public event opening Khoj's studios. One of Delhi's most significant contemporary art events.
Engagement with Khirkee Extension through community art projects and public interventions.
Artist exchanges through the Triangle Network and bilateral partnerships with international organisations.
Khoj has been the primary institutional incubator for the most experimental strand of Indian contemporary art for nearly three decades. Its residency model and critical platform have created the infrastructure within which India's contemporary art scene has developed its most internationally engaged work.
[Atlas Perspective] Khoj's significance as India's premier experimental art organisation is well established. Its funding model, combining international arts grants, government cultural support and philanthropy, faces the structural challenge common to experimental organisations: the most adventurous work is also the least commercially viable.
For cultural funders: Khoj represents a high-quality, internationally connected contemporary art organisation whose work has produced verifiable impact. Specific residency sponsorships for Indian artists or international exchange programmes are the most directly fundable activities, connecting support to measurable outcomes.