What Is A Trade? Donald Fels and Signboard Painters of South India

What Is a Trade? presents sixteen large-scale paintings that explore trade and globalization in India. Fels and his collaborators created the enamel on aluminum paintings in the style of hand-painted billboards (signboards) and Bollywood advertising. Most of the painters had formerly worked as sign painters. Until recently, all billboards in India were hand-painted, but digital technology has rapidly replaced this trade. The bright color palette and strong graphic narratives make visually arresting statements, capturing the Indian painters? responses to the effects of trade and globalization.