New media artists feature in an international group show of contemporary Indian art

A group show, entitled ‘The Matter Within: New Contemporary Art of India’, at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) puts the spotlight on dynamic practices of India’s new generation of artists. Here are a few names that form part of it:

Kolkata-born and Mumbai-based artist Nikhil Chopra works at the boundaries between theatre, performance, live art, painting, photography and sculpture, devising fictional characters that draw on India’s colonial history as well as his own personal history. Dhruv Malhotra grew up in Jaipur and is currently based in New York. His work focuses on urban areas and engages with issues of progress, modernity and the otherworldly.

Sunil Gupta is an Indian-born Canadian artist and photographer based in London and New Delhi. He has presented numerous solo exhibitions, including ‘The New Pre-Raphaelites’, Grosvenor Vadehra, London, 2010; ‘Imagining Childhood’, Sepia, New York, 2009; and ‘Mr Malhotra's Party’, Stephen Bulger, Toronto, 2009.

Currently living and working in Vadodra, Delhi-born artist Siddhartha Kararwal completed his BVA and MVA at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. He has participated in several exhibitions, including ‘Urban Testimonies and Size Matters…’, Latitude 28, Delhi, 2010; and ‘First Look’, Project 88, Mumbai, 2009.

Bharat Sikka is an Indian-born photographer who lives and works in both Europe and India. His work has been displayed in numerous national and international exhibitions. Born in Bangalore and currently based in New York, Sreshta Rit Premnath is an interdisciplinary artist, as well as the founder and editor of Shifter magazine. Premnath completed his BFA at The Cleveland Institute of Art in 2003, his MFA at Bard College in 2006.

Born in Kochi, Anup Mathew Thomas graduated from the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore in 2003. He works with photography, exploring questions of institutionalization, identity and representation.

Sudarshan Shetty was born in Mangalore, and currently lives and works in Mumbai. His recent solo exhibitions include ‘Between the tea cup and a sinking constellation’, Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, 2011; ‘this too shall pass’, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, 2010; and ‘The more I die the lighter I get’, Tilton Gallery, New York, 2010.

(Information courtesy: YBCA, San Francisco)