Recent exhibitions in India and abroad

• A major show of Indian art takes place courtesy Aicon Gallery in New York. ‘Through the Ages: South Asian Sculpture and Painting from Antiquity to Modernism’ features exquisite works by late MF Husain, Jehangir Sabavala, FN Souza, SH Raza, Ram Kumar, VS Gaitonde, and Jagdish Swaminathan.
  
  
• Another significant exhibition recently hosted at Dubai-based 1x1 Art Gallery, curated by Gayatri Sinha, included some of the top names like Anju Dodiya, Chittrovanu Mazumdar, Mithu Sen, Shibu Natesan, and Jagannath Panda. ‘Terrestial Bodies’ well amplified the diversity and depth of their practice. Their engagement with a rapidly globalizing India, and how the country locates itself in the growing city, is one of the sub themes.
  
  In the process partial stories, memory and the free associations of the mind come into play. They tackle issues of feminism as well as post structural thought, informed by Indian modernity. In their paintings and sculpture, the human body, its parts and its gestures extends into multiple spheres, of aspiration, desire and narratives of the self. In their respective oeuvres, the narratives and readings are multi-layered and complex.
  
  
• Mention must also be made of the 9th edition of the Diaspora show, entitled ‘Erasing Borders’ by the Indo-American Arts Council. This year, 41 artists present works in a wide array of media that confront socially relevant issues like sexuality, terror, the environment and racial politics. Curated by Vijay Kumar, the works on view often meld Indian and Western ideas about color, form and subject.
  
  
• Ravi Mandlik studied at the Sir J J School of Art and was a member of the teaching faculty of L S Raheja School of Art and Sir J J School of Art, Mumbai. Among the awards and accolades he has won are the Winsor & Newton Worldwide Millennium painting competition; the Bendre-Hussain Scholarship; and the Seychelles Visual Art Biennale, apart from the Art Society of India award; Usha Deshmukh Gold-Medal from Sir J.J. School of Art. His latest body of works is on view at Mumbai-based Tao Art Gallery.