Indian art shows in 2011- II

As we moved well and truly into 2011, contemporary Indian art continued its march with a series of significant shows. '21st Century: Art in the First Decade' at Queensland Art Gallery marks the end of this millennium’s first decade. The ambitious project at renowned art space in Brisbane focuses on works created and acquired specifically in this period.

Chicago based Walsh Gallery hosted a ‘Monumental’ show, involving top contemporary artists, true to its title. Largely a collection of founder Julie Walsh, the showcase divided into three major categories: personal narrative, specific historical events and current events through works by Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Atul Dodiya and Ravinder Reddy.

The idea behind ‘Paris-Delhi–Bombay’ courtesy The Centre Pompidou was to create awareness of the Indian art and culture scene to the people of France, and to bind two contrasting streams of thought, in the process. Curated by Sophie Duplaix and Fabrice Bousteau, it presented a new, exciting image of an emerging India, moving away from the stereotypes, to witness rapid transitions and transformations.

A host of talented female Indian artists seemed to be flavor of the season, in the second half of the year. Bharti Kher’s solo ‘Live Your Smell’, takes place at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris was based on the premise of allegory.
Simultaneously ‘In Transit’ by Mithu Sen was hosted at Espace Louis Vuitton, Taipei.
Galerie Dominique Fiat in Paris presented a solo show of new works, entitled ‘Babel’, by Anita Dube, an artist known for extending the visible thin line wherein words tend to act as corporeal manifestos to comment on the world around, as seen and perceived by her.

The Musée Guimet, also based in Paris, presents recent works by Rina Banerjee as part of its ongoing spring-summer 2011 Indian Season. ‘There is a spider living between us’ at Montreal’s La Centrale marked Tejal Shah’s debut solo in Canada. Meanwhile, another significant show at Hauser & Wirth (New York) incorporated recent works by Subodh Gupta, who turned his attention to instruments of measurement - those related to the food & drink– as metaphors in a chimerical visual poem about global appetite.