Best of Indian art showcased in Beijing - II

The venue of the 5th Beijing Biennale is The National Art Museum of China, also giving a special place to India through a special exhibition courtesy the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA). A special catalog by the Beijing Biennale Office of the China Artists Association contains elaborate write-ups. The LKA website provides insight into the exhibition and participating artists:

• Artist K S Radhakrishnan has created a total of two sculptures on the lines of his miniature works with forms that the artist has fashioned after his characters Musi and Maiyya.
• Balan Nambiar has created a stainless steel sculpture where the geometric proportions of the circular discs of stainless steel sit with an exactitude that suggest well thought principles of construct, where mathematics and aesthetics partner together to deliver elegance and lightness. In the balance, the work resembles a ballerina on stage.
• For artist Seema Kohli, who has included a sculpture as her third entry into the exhibition, her work is representative of the opening of inner channels and merging with nature around.
• Deepak Shinde’s works investigate the passion aroused for marked territories by both man and animal. He uses the form of a tiger to bring home the idea, also focusing on the powerful animal’s precarious condition, thereby focussing attention on the ecological system.
• Suman Gupta’s art takes shape to glorify the individuality of man. For this he chooses the ordinary individual in his moment of relaxation, when he is freed of the burdens of existence and seeks refuge in temporary spurts of happiness. 
• In the works of K K Muhamad, the role of violence in enhancing the power of art is a recognized fact, and his art is a response to this powerful theme. Examining the historical and religious context of violence, his mixed media work assembles a multiplicity of lines, strata, machines and bodies sourced from nature, architecture, technology, all of them creating an expansion of possibilities.
• Moving away from the purely personal on to a more socially recognizable domain is the work of Vijay Bagodi titled ‘Between Shades and Shadows’. It depicts the factual contradiction emanating from the much touted philosophy of advising the viewer not to speak, hear or see evil. Made in the intaglio process on zinc plate and aquatint, it sharply points to the compromising of this issue in today’s circumstances.

(Information courtesy: Lalit Kala Akademi)