‘Vernacular, in the Contemporary’

Jackfruit Research and Design, a Bangalore based arts consultancy, is curating a new show of works from the Lekha & Anupam Poddar collection and some newly commissioned works as well by artists often categorized as makers of folk, tribal and traditional art.

The new exhibition, entitled ‘Vernacular, in the Contemporary’ look to focus on the vernacular and shift the art historical and institutional terms for understanding and theorizing this captivating cluster of visual art. More importantly, the show tries to foreground the diversity and contemporary relevance of vernacular artists’ ideas, concerns and personas, through some truly ambitious projects.

The exhibition being hosted at the Devi Art Foundation venue features the works of nearly sixty artists. All of them practice a wide range of painting styles and are also proficient at sculpture. Most gained their humble artistic training either in the family or community, However, they today are seeking to explore and stretch their practice further.

Jackfruit and Devi Art Foundation both have created a novel curatorial agenda that strives to provide these upcoming and talented artists necessary space and resources for developing and executing new projects. The exhibition also serves as an archival venture since the participating artists were interviewed and photographed in their workspaces and studios, as you might like to call it, during the selection process. The documentation and fieldwork undertaken during the preparatory stage is now a source of art historical knowledge for the exhibition curators as well as for art scholars.

Incidentally, Devi Art Foundation is expanding its portfolio of private institutional support by encouraging vernacular artists of India. Its support will also create fresh public discourse and pedagogy through global contemporary and vernacular art today to explore new themes.

The first part of the show takes place from November 27 until February 28th 2011, whereas its second part is slated to be held between March and June 2011.