Manish Nai, Vishal K Dar, Arunkumar H. G and others in the Škoda shortlist

Manish Nai’s preoccupation with unusual textures began in the year 2000, when his father owned a small wholesale business selling jute cloth. Pushing his practice further, Nai utilized the jute threads left over from these ‘paintings’ to create his very first sculptures. His ‘Extramural’ was shown at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in Mumbai, in August and September 2010.

Vishal K Dar’s project encompasses digital, manual, material, and monumental worlds; it merges visual spectacle with socio-political concerns. His ‘BROWNation’ was shown at Gallery Espace in New Delhi in October 2010.

Arunkumar H. G recent solo exhibition consisted of sculptures in varied materials: sugar, silicon, wood, polythene and steel. Arunkumar H.G.’s “Tract” was shown at Nature Morte in New Delhi, in September and October 2010.

RAQS trawls through a haunting, dream-like landscape straddling Warsaw, Berlin and Bombay/Mumbai to produce a diptych for a video, which is part-natural history, part-detective journal, part-forensic analysis, part-cosmopolitan urban investigation and part-philosophical dialogue so as to offer a considered and personal reflection on possibilities for radical renewal in our times. Also in the show were a series of photographs, sculptures from found objects and a light installation. RAQS Media Collective’s “Capital of Accumulation” was shown at Project 88 in Mumbai, in October and November 2010.

By appropriating visually arresting images of contemporary urban life, Sujith S.N. attempts to explain the moments where architecture becomes political. In doing so, he specifically tries to address questions about the disciplinary powers and regulatory mechanisms of modern cities. His ‘Map is not the Territory’ was shown at Latitude 28 in New Delhi, from September to November 2010.

Anjali Srinivasan’s responsive entities like toys, tools, devices and installations as evidences of ephemeral activities and entities that remain unfulfilled without human presence To this end, her studio practice discovers, assesses and restructures information held in a material or a situation – glass, spices, emergent technology and human gesture. Her ‘Of Shifting Natures’ was shown at Sridharani Gallery in New Delhi, in January 2011.