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Published – February 01, 2026 10:16 am IST
At a time when Artificial Intelligence (AI) is posing a serious threat to creativity, printmaking is thumbing its nose at it. The artistic process that can traces its roots to 3000 BCE — when cylinder seals were used in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley — has an inbuilt sense of mobility that is hard to silence. One of the reasons why it’s having a moment in 2026.
In Kolkata, the third edition of the Print Biennale is on (till February 15) at the Lalit Kala Akademi. Featuring over 204 artists from across the globe, it highlights contemporary printmaking. In the national capital, Dhoomimal Gallery is opening an exhibition titled Print Age – The Art of Printmaking in the Age of AI Reproduction (on February 3), in conjunction with the India Art Fair. It will show a collection of 156 original prints created by 80 artists from various backgrounds and eras, including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Anish Kapoor, Jyoti Bhatt, and contemporary Indian artists. All of this begs the question: why is printmaking thriving in the age of AI?
The Print Biennale in Kolkata
“Printmaking in India is thriving not in spite of difficulties but [because it is working] through them — shaped by a lack of awareness among the general public, the absence of studio facilities, and persistent market challenges,” says Krishna Setty, curator of the Print Biennale and commissioner at Lalit Kala Akademi. “These constraints have compelled printmakers to innovate, collaborate, share resources, and continually rethink the conceptual, technical, and social possibilities of the medium, giving contemporary Indian printmaking a renewed vitality and critical relevance.” The Akademi has long been a great support to printmaking; its new Regional Centre offers state-of-the-art printmaking studios.
“We have an extensive, and often ignored, history of printmaking in India. Our visual landscape has been shaped by print culture over the centuries, and this exhibition draws from the many significant private and institutional collections in Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Delhi that have amassed important works over time. Also included are new works created by younger artists.” Johny M.L. Curator, Print Age
Just another design tool
Printmaking, historically, also holds an important place in Indian culture. “The Quit India Movement was made viable through the many leaflets and posters made by India’s dedicated team of printmakers, like Chittorprasad, Bimal Roy, Zainul Abedin and Somnath Hore,” observes art historian and collector Neville Tuli. “In fact, Chittorprasad travelled extensively in the famine-stricken areas of Bengal to document and report on the dire conditions of the people, which triggered outrage and revolution.” It is upon this strong culture that printmakers now build their community.
Artist N. Roerich’s Town (Ominious) at Dhoomimal Gallery
And new challenges and technologies are all grist for their mill. For printmakers, AI is just another tool in their artmaking arsenal. “The history of printmaking is testimony to the continuous appropriation of technology by printmakers,” says artist and researcher Paula Sengupta, who has curated the group exhibition PURVAI: Printmaking in Eastern India – Pedagogy to Practice, at Emami Art in Kolkata (till March 7). “When digital technology made its presence felt, printmakers harnessed it to make digitally-aided prints, more often than not combining it with traditional processes. Likewise, AI is the new tool to capture their imagination.”
PURVAI traces contemporary printmaking across Eastern India and features 44 artists and collectives from the Northeastern states, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. “Its purpose is to demonstrate the versatility of the medium as applied and extended by vibrant creative minds,” Sengupta adds.
Pradip Das’ Untitled (engraving on plaster, wood, acrylic, iron, and magnifying lens)
Subrat Kumar Behera’s The Cursed Tree (lithography on paper)
A more democratic art scene
Today, printmaking is witnessing renewed interest worldwide because of the dedicated efforts of artists, institutes and networks — for a medium that is technically demanding yet economically within the reach of the young collector. As printmaker D.D. Apte puts it, that makes “all the effort of keeping alive the techniques worth the while”. Uday Jain, director of Dhoomimal Gallery, adds that this renewed vigour in the processes, and the continued growth of confidence in the international art marketplace in prints, has created an urgency too for exhibitions of this nature.
“Printmaking, like ceramics, is a very skilled and technical process, and requires the human touch to execute. I think this is where it scores over AI, even more than painting, which can be somewhat replicated.”Rahul KumarCeramist and curator
“Collectors are beginning to understand not only the historic but also the material value of limited-edition prints by master printmakers,” he says, adding, “As we enter an era with AI being used in creative fields, original art will become much more relevant and in demand.” Moreover, printmaking involves technology and may at times combine the qualities of paintings as well as digital art forms. “The art scene now is more democratic than ever before. Textile videos, photography performance art, print-making, canvas paintings and art works on paper all form a large landscape of art portfolios today. And these don’t have to be at war with each other but rather be in harmony and give audiences more choice,” says Jain.
Print Age at Dhoomimal Gallery | Photo Credit: Rajeev Dabra
This is reflected in the focus on printmaking across government agencies too: Lalit Kala is supporting the Print Biennale; the Delhi Collage of Art and the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda have flourishing print-making departments; and the Sarvajanik School of Fine Arts in Surat is known for hosting intensive workshops on techniques such as etching and reduction process. “Several prestigious art institutes and specialised centres around the world support printmaking through dedicated studios, academic programmes, and artist-in-residence opportunities,” states printmaker Ananda Moy Banerji.
And these institutions of art, small and big printmaking studios, and galleries “…demonstrate that printmakers are thriving and printmaking is here to stay”, concludes Sengupta.
The writer is a Delhi-based independent art critic and curator.
Published – February 01, 2026 10:16 am IST
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