Indian artists draw from the birth town of Masaccio

During a month-long Casa Masaccio artist residency project, four contemporary Indian artists drew inspiration from the culture and site- specific aspects of historic San Giovanni Valdarno. They all soaked in the serene surroundings, nature, architecture, and interiors of spaces caught in a time warp as well as people and their peculiar customs.

Remen Chopra

Born in New Delhi, and educated at the School Of Visual Arts New York, Remen Chopra naturally tends to combine diverse mediums like drawing, photography, painting, sculpture and installation to create works that are visually as layered as their conceptual depth. The treatment of her materials creates sensations and textures that allow the innovations to visibly layer beyond the surface. This furthers the need to make the content evident for the viewer, even if drawn from an intensely private and thoughtful place to be available and assessed.

Vibha Galhotra

Vibha Galhotra's practice addresses trans-cultural in the global local specificity. Driven by her concern towards the random urban development and fast depleting living environment, her work at a broader level expresses the fusion of science and spirituality through the collective concern of schizophrenic spaces and effects on culture and human values. She focuses on the context of displacement, nostalgia, identity, existence construction or deconstruction, the banal cultural condition in, around environment of negotiations in the new constant changing world. Her work crosses the dimensions of art, ecology, economy and activism.

Sonia Jose

Inspired by everyday life and experiences, Sonia Jose’s art practice relates to the environment and personal/social history. Her work stems from a need to preserve and acknowledge lived experience - she is particularly drawn to the intimate and overlooked circumstances that surround routine life practices. Working with varied media that includes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation - she investigates the relationships, exchanges and politics between place, architecture, object and individual. The artist graduated in fine art from the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore.

Monali Meher

Monali Meher studied at Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai, 1990. In 1998 received ‘Unesco -Aschberg’ Residency in Vienna by Federal Chancellery for Arts and Science and performed her 1st performance,’ Reflect: A personal window display’, at Jehangir art gallery in Mumbai with the statement, ‘Nothing is permanent & it’s a nature’s law’. Since then she has exhibited her performances internationally at museums and institutes.