Finalists of The Skoda Prize on view at NGMA

There are wide array of events related to art in and around New Delhi on eve of the India Art Fair. This year’s finalists for the prestigious Skoda Prize offer a good mix at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA).Curated by known critic Girish Shahane, the exhibition incorporates art by talented contemporary artists and groups. These include Shilpa Gupta, Srinivasa Prasad, L.N. Tallur and CAMP.  The top 4 short list for the prize is as follows:

CAMP, an artists’ collective

It is comprised of Ashok Sukumaran, Sanjay Bhangar, Shaina Anand and Zinnia Ambapardiwala, staged ‘Two Stages of Invention’ at the Experimenter (Kolkata). The exhibition explored the idea of an ‘after-life’ and a ‘before-life’ for two of art’s usual objects.

Shilpa Gupta’s ‘Someone Else’

Her show at Chemould Prescott Road, entitled ‘Someone Else’, was made up of works from different series and made over the past few years. The works explored ideas of control, individual agency, fear and censorship; that of one’s actions being controlled by someone else.

Srinivasa Prasad

In his show Nirantara by Gallery SKE (Bangalore), Srinivasa Prasad’s explored idea of home as residence, refuge, physical location, and as the emotional state of seeking a place for solace and comfort. In ‘Nirantara,’ his sculptures denoted the metaphorical ideas of home - as a resting place. The sculptures explored the idea of creating spaces that are meditative. The artist used household objects and recycled materials to create his sculptures for this show.

‘Quintessential’ by L. N Tallur

L. N Tallur’s ‘Quintessential’ courtesy the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai was explored through a scientific approach and typically captured the original intentions with which the museum was established that is, to exhibit the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment. He believes, when an art object is ‘museumized’, that creates a fifth dimension; which is a further addition to Einstein’s 4 dimensions (time-space). The show narrated the artist’s theory of '5th dimension'.