Sunday, October 18, 2009

A New Vanguard: trends in contemporary Indian art

A comprehensive group show, entitled 'A New Vanguard’, mapped distinct trends in contemporary Indian art. The exhibition comprised works by eighteen emerging and talented artists. It was hosted at the Guild gallery in New York and simultaneously showcased online by Saffronart, the premier auction house.

'A New Vanguard’ offered a glimpse of the new idiom propagated by participating artists’ who ably represented India's diverse contemporary artistic practices. The exhibition encompassed the dynamic trends and temperaments as each work offered a unique perspective on the continual negotiations, aspirations and struggles of today’s complex life, presented across the various stages on which it’s played out, from the village to the megalopolis, the intimate to the public.

It included some exciting works that encompassed a wide range of media like painting, sculpture, digital printmaking, video art, and site specific installation. A press release stated: “It’s our endeavor to offer a glimpse of the talented artists and artworks that are at the forefront of India's vast contemporary art practices.

The artists featuring in the show included Gigi Scaria, Sunoj D, Sathyanand Mohan, K P Reji, Sumedh Rajendran, Abir Karmarkar. Lavanya Mani. Lokesh Khodke, and Prajakta Palav Aher among others. Many of the works on display were essentially spontaneous reactions to the country's fast evolving environmental and sociopolitical landscapes.

Each of the participating artists gave rise to interesting questions about the curious coexistence of the urban and the rural and the ensuing tension between the urge to move forward and keenness to preserve traditions. It was accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with essays by V. Divakar and Santhosh S.

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