Saturday, August 24, 2013

A spotlight on India's talented multi-media artist

Considered among India's most talented multi-media artists, Ranbir Kaleka's work has been described as ‘creating a seemingly living tableau on a canvas and screen.’ His new work – as part of the month-long show - continues this project of producing art in an intermediate space between a painting and running visual (video), which is not as much a hybrid as a transmutation.

Ranbir Kaleka, born in 1953, spent his formative in Patiala, and studied at the College of Art in Chandigarh (1970-75). He received a Masters Degree in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London (1987). Underlining his credentials as an artist of international standing, his works have been hosted in many museum exhibitions of Indian contemporary art over the past decade, including the recent ‘Chalo! India’ at the Mori Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2008); ‘India Moderna’ at the Institute of Modern Art, Valencia, Spain (2008); ‘New Narratives’ at the Chicago Cultural Center (2007); ‘HORN PLEASE!’ at the Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (2007); ‘Urban Manners’ at Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2007); ‘Hungry God: Indian Contemporary Art’ at Busan Museum of Modern Art, South Korea (2006).

He has also featured in ‘Art Video Lounge’ at Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami (2006); ‘Edge of Desire’ at Asia Society, NY (2005); ‘iCon: India Contemporary’ at the Venice Biennale (2005); ‘Zoom! Art in Contemporary India’, Lisbon (2004); and ‘subTerrain: Indian Contemporary Art’ at House of World Cultures, Berlin (2003), among others.

In 2007 Ranbir Kaleka was commissioned to create a permanent video installation for Chicago’s new Spertus Museum. His work was included in the Sydney Biennale in 2008, and also formed part of the ‘India: public places, private spaces’ show dedicated to contemporary photography and video art in India at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Viewing his work is like a manipulation of time in which one may both experience the moment of action as well as view it from above. 'Reading Man’, his third solo with Bose Pacia (2005, 07), brought out how the artist creates contemporary tableaux of subconscious visions and fanciful dreamscapes by marrying realistic figures and passages with intense coloration and uncanny juxtapositions of objects.

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