Vinay Gusain (27)
Artist, Printmaker
Vinay Gusain is that rare artist who is also an innovator and entrepreneur. Hailing from a village in Haryana, Gusain works across printmaking, video, and object-based installation, specialising in techniques such as mezzotint and aquatint. He has also created a mezzotint rocker that has traditionally been available to artists in India only as an imported product; the imported tool roughly costs ₹24,000, while Gusain’s version, sold under his company name Medwa Tools, costs about half that amount.
Mezzotint is a process in which a rocker—a metal tool with numerous small ‘teeth’—is used to etch a metal sheet, on which ink is subsequently applied. “There needs to be about 4 teeth per millimetre of space,” explains Gusain. “I have sold about 55 pieces in the last year, including to clients in eight foreign countries, such as Japan,” says the 27-year-old, who currently lives in Faridabad. “My aim is to make art students in India aware that this tool is now available at a cheaper price than the usual foreign ones.”
Despite his family not having any connection with the world of art—his father works in the field of electrical machinery—Gusain always found support from them. “It is quite unusual for families in the Delhi-Haryana region to support such artistic dreams in their children,” says Kumar Jasakiya, assistant professor of painting at Kala Bhavan, Biswa Bharti, Santiniketan, and Gusain’s former professor at Amity University. “But Vinay’s father, and the people around him, have always encouraged him. Vinay himself has been very enterprising in not only sourcing different kinds of materials for tool-making, but also in finally making a fully usable rocker.”
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Gusain’s art practice revolves around printmaking, and his most recent works focus on those who are marginalised, whether because of societal conditions, economic realities or inner turmoil. “When I would walk to college in Baroda, I would often find people sleeping alongside the road,” he recalls. “They seemed to carry all their worldly belongings inside polythene bags, which fascinated me. I could not see what was inside them, and it created a sense of mystery. Maybe it held food, or maybe their clothes. Most of them didn’t have homes, or worked nights. Sometimes their hands were folded and gave the impression that they were holding so many emotions within themselves, creating a barrier between themselves and society at large.” Found objects wrapped in polythene bags subsequently began to feature in Gusain’s artworks, folded, like the shirts of the homeless, roadside sleepers.
Jasakiya adds that normally we are conditioned to associate certain kinds of environments or objects, such as beds or rooms, with the concepts of relaxation or rest. But Gusain’s artworks are able to portray the concept without the necessity of the associated environments or objects.
Gusain’s works have been exhibited at several venues across Delhi and Mumbai, and he has received the 2025-26 Lalit Kala Akademi scholarship. He has also been a guest lecturer in the Graphics Department at the College of Fine Arts in Thiruvananthapuram between December 2023 and March 2024.
