Ravi Agarwal has an inter-disciplinary practice as an artist, environmental campaigner, writer and curator. His work, explores key contemporary questions around ecology, society, urban space and capital. He works with photographs, video, installations, and public art and has been shown widely in shows, including at the Kochi Biennial (2016), Sharjah Biennial (2013) and Documenta XI (2002). He co-curated the Yamuna-Elbe, Indo German twin city public art and ecology twin city project in 2011 and Embrace our Rivers, Public Art Ecology project in Chennai (2018). He is the curator for the forthcoming exhibition New Natures; A terrible beauty is born, to be held by the Goethe Institute Mumbai, in January 2022.
He is currently working on a new photobook and a multispecies art project Samtal Jameen, Samtal Jameersupported by the Prince Claus Foundation. Ravi is also the founder of the Indian environmental NGO Toxics Link, which has pioneered work in waste and chemicals in India. He serves on several policy committees, and writes extensively on sustainability issues in journals and books. He was awarded the UN Special Recognition Award for Chemical Safety in 2008 and the Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurship in 1997.
