Contemporary artists from India in Italy - II

Torino (Italy) based Luce Gallery presents a major group show 'Indian Rainbow', featuring prominent contemporary Indian artists, namely Atul Dodiya, Justin Ponmany, Thukral & Tagra, Jagannath Panda and TV Santhosh.

Jiten Thukral was born in the state of Punjab in 1976, where as Sumir Tagra was born in Delhi in 1978. Working together, Thukral & Tagra have made a name for themselves as expert graphic artists and designers. They effectively explore the drastic changes that their country and Punjab in particular. The two usually design their creation on PC before they work on it. While developing it, the talented duo improvises on each other’s ideas.

Designing may have taken a backseat, but they are acutely aware of the social impact that design can have. Both artists engage with sensitive issues such as immigration and consumerism through provocative experimental research that stylistically transcends the fine boundaries of Pop Art. While playful and humorous, their work also raises pertinent questions about the nature of Indian identity as articulated by Indians themselves and projected on to the aspiring nation by the rest of the world.

Among other participating artists, TV Santhosh, born in Kerala in 1968, creates work that maps the trend of violence and unrest and its oft-representation as a spectacle in the contemporary world. These are the bold themes that he provocatively deals with in his work. One of India's most talented artists of his generation, Santhosh has been witness to a meteoric rise carving out a niche for himself in India and internationally.

By drawing upon source material from newspapers, websites and magazines, he creates polarized images whose violent undertone gets further emphasized by the dramatic usage of acid colours.He strives to project the truth, hidden somewhere in the barrage of images in media to present alternative narratives. The artist elaborates: “It’s not easy to distinguish between factual representation and distortion of facts. As an artist, I strive to formulate a language capable of capturing notions of reality.”

Exploring the bond between fashion and art

Fashion and art flaunted a bond, a symbiotic relationship, a connection between them courtesy Khoj International Artists’ Association. It presented ‘The Idea of Fashion’, an exhibition that showcased works by a group of artists and fashion designers.

The project at Khoj Studios in New Delhi was amalgamation of art and fashion, involving Mithu Sen (artist), Manisha Parekh (artist), Anay Mann (photographer), Arjun Saluja (fashion designer) and Kallol Datta (fashion designer). Mithu Sen in her work studies self-perception and analyzes the influence of society on our identity. She engages in queries related to gender in postmodernism and the subjective experience of sexuality and femininity in post-emancipation. Anay Mann started photography in 2001, especially the stage portraits as the idiom to explore. Artist Manisha Parekh has exhibited work extensively in India and abroad.

According to the director of Khoj, Pooja Sood, the residency tried to question the role of fashion in shaping our everyday realities and dreams, as well as both the individual and collective processes of self perception, identity, communication etc. She added: “What’s intended with these processes and perceptions? What’s achieved and what’s at play here, what’s at stake and the powerful role fashion has and continues to play in history? The idea is to explore what it means to an individual, and how one may start seeing fashion as an artifact and also instrument in society as we understand it of the fashion weeks and fashion shows.”

Through installations and garments, the participants presented different perceptions and ideas related to fashion. Anay Mann and Mithu Sen explained that the workshop was more about delving into how fashion can change identity and behavior. Manisha Parekh treated it as a physiological journey into the fashion designers’ minds to follow the attitude behind experimenting with different fabrics and materials.

Arjun Saluja and Kallol Dutta went back to the basics and experienced the joy of team working and thus understand the mindset of artists and how they used it in terms of fashion. According to them, both artists and fashion designers have quite a similar sense of expression though the medium of expression is different.

'Therein & Besides' by Sheela Gowda

London based Iniva presents Sheela Gowda's first UK solo that also includes a new commission. The Bangalore based artist is known for her large-sized sculptural installations that draw upon common objects and everyday materials used as the starting point. Her usage of diverse materials is comprised of both an investigation into their physical qualities and source.

Iniva creates exhibits, publications, education and research projects that engage with a spate of new ideas and debates in the contemporary art world that reflect the current cultural diversity. For this exhibit at the spacious gallery overlooking Rivington Street, she has explored a new set of materials to create a scintillating sculptural work. ‘Of all people’ is the new work, made of countless wooden chips.

Roughly carved into votive objects by craftsmen, they form part of a captivating composition of frames and doors that are painted in shades of emerald green, pink, off-white etc. They reveal the marks of weathering. The viewer is prompted to recalibrate their engagement of the work from different heights as well as perspectives.

Her works juxtapose abstract forms with pointed references to society. Having trained as a painter, Sheela Gowda’s diverse art practice blossomed in the 1990s, as she also tried out sculpture and installation. The artist’s visual idiom responds to the contemporary world’s complexities like its violence and contradictions.

While she has featured in many curated group shows, this solo is an opportunity to view her oeuvre in a larger context. As she reveals: “I work towards layers of meaning even while trimming the form to the extent possible, where the source or the reference is suggested, but not (always) stated literally.'

Initially, she selects and tests a material for its physical/ conceptual attributes. What will it do? How can the material be transformed and what structures can it make possible? This results in creations that are pared down to abstract forms, which remove them from specific socio-economic context, albeit contain a residue of its source, made perceptible to the viewer.

‘Feminine Syntax: Personal Biographies’

‘Feminine Syntax: Personal Biographies’ is the title of a show at Lemongrasshopper, Ahmedabad. The exhibition features works of 6 young women artists. Curated by Rekha Rodwittiya, a noteworthy artist herself, it is comprised of works by Karishma D'souza, Kim Seola, Lee Hayan , Kim Kyoungae, Malavika Rajnarayan and Sonatina Mendes. The first three are from South Korea. Karishma D’souza and Sonatina Mendes are from Goa; and Malavika Rajnarayan is from Bangalore; all now currently reside in Baroda.

‘Feminine Syntax : Personal Biographies’, as an accompanying essay mentions, is an intimate space of reflection and consideration that desires to hold dear the personal and the fragile, within an art environment that has increasingly begun to impose the demands for grand and epic proclamations. Like the weaving of a tapestry, the many different threads that knot and come together are what finally make for a complete picture; and as lives interweave too, these spaces of communion hold exquisite value.

A staunch feminist, Rekha Rodwittiya believes that in spite of the gender inequality, a multitude of voices still express the desire to dispel the stereotype of gender bias, and look to accommodate the complex changes we know to be real. The participating artists are acutely conscious of the collective histories that that they choose to belong to and which may be viewed as the legacies of feminist discourse.

Nuanced and evocative, their works imbibe oral histories of a multicultural social milieu which become the stage of greater elaboration and interventions. Shared associations, conflicts, parallel histories and cultural investigations - all wrapped in the pursuit of a visual language, have distilled to articulate passages of contemporary existence for these six women.

Feminine sensibility in art is often from those territories that engage with the politics of gender and which chart a history crucial to contextualizing self representations, as the curator concludes. The show is a perfect event, to coincide with this year's International Women’s Day celebrations…

(Information courtesy: Lemongrasshopper)

Insights into building a good art collection

A recent news report by Tinesh Bhasin in The Business Standard (Making your portfolio arty) publication, differentiates between collectors who buy high value art with no intention of selling it and buyers who want to buy cheap and hopefully sell at a profit. For them, art is not a long term investment avenue. The reason could be that art unlike most other asset classes like property and stocks do not help a person earn regular returns in form of dividend, rent or interest income.

It does not really generate any tangible income just by holding it. No wonder, when gallerists find out that these aspects often deter potential art buyers. The informative news report points out:

“Many collectors prefer to keep works of celebrated artists. But works of M F Husain, S H Raza and Tyeb Mehta run into crores. However, there are smaller works as well. Give priority to established galleries over new ones and dealers.

“Established galleries often commission artists to work for them and they know their art. They will also have better collection as compared to newer ones, the reports mentions Geetha Mehra, owner of Sakshi Gallery as saying. In a way, buying art is often ‘an emotional affair’ and the collector must ideally like it and also relate to it.

Before buying, visit the gallery or auction house to check your selection. Its invoice is the most key document you need to retain you as long as you own the work. It serves as the proof of the work being authentic and genuine, especially in case of certain artists who are no more there. If the work of the artist whose work you own or want to own features in any catalogue or publication, keep the copy with you.

Last but not the least, you need inputs from experts to collect right pieces. Approach a specialist dealer who will demystify the process of collecting. Harbor a comprehensive and holistic approach instead of a bits and pieces. Know what to collect, at what price to buy, and where as well as how to buy. All these aspects are crucial to make art a good investment.

How to go about buying art?

So what is the right way to launch your love for art? A news report by Tinesh Bhasin in The Business Standard (Making your portfolio arty) publication proves a quick guide on the topic. Quoting experts in the domain of art it underlines the fact that budget is not really a factor.

There are artworks for all budgets! You may buy them for a mere Rs 5,000-10,000 or purchase works worth a crore or more. The correct way is to chalk up a budget for each piece. You should also check websites of prominent galleries, news portals, auction houses and investment advisors to shortlist artists and artworks, which appeal your preference and tastes.

Buy higher worth works as you become more comfortable and conversant. The story mentions of an NRI couple that started with a budget of Rs 15 lakh or so to put up a few works of art in their new luxury house. They rightly decided to start small and first develop a proper understanding of what they want to buy. As the writer suggests:

"If you wish to own master artists, you can explore from options like sketches or watercolors. You will be able to buy these even below Rs 2-3 lakh apiece. These can be small-sized artworks, say 10*10 inches or thereabouts. Another option is buying serigraphs or lithographs, which are authorized copies of an original work created by the artists themselves, and even signed by them. If the print quality of a lithograph is good and the production is low, it will hold value. For instance, you can buy a lithograph of 'Astavinayak' by Husain for roughly Rs 25,000 (excluding taxes)."

Importantly, if you come across a piece within your budget that you like, buy it without worrying about the future value. If you are not able to relate to a work, better not buying it!

Where to draw the line of decency?

Artists for ages have depicted sex – fascinating frescos in Pompei and Herculaneum hardly leave anything to the imagination, albeit in keeping with the permissiveness of the respective time period, graphic sexual images have been kept away from public glare.

This is no more the case. Exhibits in commercial galleries having explicit content seem are on the rise. Currently, London based Simon Lee Gallery is showcasing works by Larry Clark. This American photographer’s series, entitled ‘Kiss the Past Hello’ in Paris last year saw was banned under-18-year-olds. It apparently had explicit ‘sex & drug taking’ content.

Again in London, Alison Jacques has just had an exhibition curated by the Scissor Sisters. Among the works on view were some of famous homoerotic images by Mapplethorpe like ‘Untitled (Milton Moore)’. Pilar Corrias showed last year works by the US photographer Leigh Ledare. It had explicit images and videos, making for an uncomfortable viewing. The Luxembourg-Dayan gallery in New York has exhibited works from ‘Made in Heaven’ series by Jeff Koons, containing graphic photos and sculptures full of sexual acrobatics.

Sometimes such explicit subject matter puts galleries and museums in a rather difficult position, as they have to steer a tricky path between exhibiting and documenting artistic practice in all its forms, at the prospect of incurring public outrage. Quoting academic and sociologist András Szanto, Georgina Adam of The Financial Times notes in an insightful article (The hard sell): “The 80s and 90s were marked by the fearsome Aids epidemic, anxiety; the feminist art of the earlier decade was scandalous in what it depicted. So where to draw the line between pornography and art?"

“Every age has its ‘Olympia’, another expert mentions, referring to Manet’s portrait of a naked courtesan (1863) that provoked uproar. “Today the threshold for making such outrageous sexual statements is much higher. Art is a mirror of society.”