Hauser & Wirth, Zurich hosts Subodh Gupta’s works

Several prominent Indian artists feature in ongoing major international shows at renowned galleries across the globe, including Hauser & Wirth in Zurich, Walsh Gallery in Chicago, Amsterdam’s Huis Marseille Museum, Arario in Seoul, New York based RL Arts and e-flux.

Hauser & Wirth hosts an exhibition of monumental new sculptures and the ‘Cosmos’ paintings by Subodh Gupta in its new Zurich space. The celebrated artist’s ideas take shape in a variety of innovative and offbeat media like steel, bronze, marble, paint etc. Different materials are encountered for their intrinsic aesthetic virtues and as conceptual signifiers that signify diverse connotations.

The mass-produced utensils have played a significant role in the artist’s creative processes. They project an ambiguous symbolism: whilst they are considered as exotic and representative of intriguing Indian culture in the West, to people in India they remain common objects, used almost daily in every household. He intelligently harnesses these hybrid associations, letting them quietly resonate in his viewers’ mind.

The works feature utensils as the central motif, and relate to the earlier ‘Still Steal Steel’ series, and to the sculptures he constructs using innumerable tiffins and thalis, as well. The artist makes the utility items represent the Cosmos, for the universe as a harmonious and orderly system; each airborne metal item symbolizing the matter and energy out of which everything is created.

New marble sculptures complement the painted works. Simultaneously, recent works by the internationally acclaimed artist are on view at Arario Seoul, South Korea. He also features in a sculpture show at Chatsworth House in Britain alongside Damien Hirst, Ju Ming, Eduardo Chillida, Manolo Valdés, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Lynn Chadwick, Yue Minjun, and Barry Flanagan, among others

This exhibition is Hauser & Wirth’s inaugural show at Hubertus Exhibitions, a raw industrial space that will be the temporary home for the gallery during the refurbishment of the former Löwenbräu brewery building.