Binu Bhaskar, Fabien Charuau, Neil Chowdhury, Pradeep Dalal, Dhruv Dhawan, Soham Gupta, Swapan Parekh, Zubin Pastakia, Brijesh Patel and Mahesh Shantaram are the photographers who feature in a group show at Gallery Duboys. It's a new contemporary art venue located in the core art quarter of Paris.
The show at the innovative art space is its curators’ reading of what’s exactly happening on Indian photography scene right now. It’s an exercise that involves putting together photo artists who are intimately engaged with their themes and subjects, in a transparent reflection of how life in the country engages the people.
The participating artists are all linked together by their deft handling of reality and acute empathy for their subject matter. A curatorial note elaborates: “This is a precise photographic approach where they probe reality as a fragment of a much larger and highly complex whole. Instead of recording what’s perceived as real, this approach is rather a preoccupation with the twisting, and the subsequent testing of today’s so-called reality. It is a vision shaped by a certain mode of looking at the world, which tends to take partial reality for granted.”
‘This Is Not That = what is true hidden under multiple layers of illusion...’ is how the spirit of this photography show can be summed up. Underlining the premise of the show, an accompanying note explains, “It’s rooted in a photographic approach wherein the artist happens to probe reality in-depth. Rather than an effort to reproduce what the eye gets to see, the artists begin with no set rules, exploring things in a subjective way.
According to Fabien Charuau, the exhibit gives the participating artists an opportunity to move away from the diktats that have been imposed by curators mostly outside India, who attempt to make peculiar Indian offerings fit the long-standing clichés and stereotypes. Simultaneously, Paris based Centre Pompidou is hosting a major show of contemporary Indian art.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Contemporary Indian photographers in a Paris show- I
Dominique Charlet & Fabien Charuau are co-curators of a photography show in Paris, involving 10 talented contemporary artists from India at Gallery Duboys. Here is a quick introduction to the three of them:
Dhruv Dhawan is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer living in Dubai. His work is distributed internationally and has been nominated for awards at Tribeca and Hot Docs. His first feature film, 'From Dust', was recognized by the United Nations for its relevance to human rights and issues of governance in the wake of natural disasters.
When he set out to capture people sleeping on the street, he knew he was dealing with sensitive subject matter. "Although these pictures look beautiful, the reality of them is not," The artist says. "A good night's sleep is a universal human need and the reason I have called this project, 'Mumbai: The city that never sleeps' is because these people cannot get a good night's sleep with trucks running by, bright lights in their face, rats gnawing at their feet."
Mahesh Shantaram lives and works in Bangalore. His primary area of interest lies in urban reality rooted in the here and now. He is working on a long-term photo book project that documents modern Bangalore as it goes through interesting times. Following a long hiatus away from home, he returned only to find himself having to resettle in a city that evoked memories, while at the same time, contradicted them. His photos are diary notes from a study of change observed in various neighborhoods of Bangalore city.
Neil Chowdhury's photographic and digital media work explores the relationships between individuals, their societies, and environments in different cultures. Currently, he is working on a project exploring his Indian heritage, entitled 'Waking from Dreams of India'. He is an assistant professor and director of the photography program at Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, New York.
Indian photographers at a show in Paris- II
A show in Paris at Gallery Duboys features 10 talented contemporary photographers from India. Here is a quick introduction to some of the participating artists:
Pradeep Dalal is an artist and writer. His work was recently included in exhibits at Higher Pictures in New York, the Herter Art Gallery in Amherst and at Aljira Center for Contemporary Art in Newark. He has also exhibited at the New York Public Library, Orchard, and ps122 Gallery, and at TART in San Francisco and the Vadhera Gallery in New Delhi. Dalal’s reviews and interviews have been published in ARTWURL, Teaching Photo, Village Voice, and EGO Magazine.
He is a recipient of the Tierney Fellowship, and has an MFA from ICP/Bard College and an MArch from MIT. He works at the Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program, and is on the faculty at the International Center of Photography in New York.
Born in 1966, Swapan Parekh Studied photojournalism and documentary photography at the international Centre of Photography, New York. Parekh’s work has been published in Time, Life, People, American Photo, The London Independent, Der Spiegel, El Pais, among others. He has been on the jury of the World Press Photo Awards thrice in Amsterdam. His first solo exhibition of photographs, Between Me & I was shown at Photoink in Delhi, Chattejee & Lal in Mumbai and at the Foam Photography Museum in Amsterdam.
His work has been exhibited in several group exhibitions like Photographers in Asia: India: Tokyo (2007); Overseas, gallery Ske, Bangalore (2007); Really True! Photography and the promise of reality, Ruhrlandmuseum, Germany (2004); Century City, Tate Gallery, London (2001); Inferno Paradiso, Umea Museum, Sweden, (1999); Under/Exposed, Stocklom Underground; Xposeptember, Stockholm Fotofestival, (1998); India: A Celebration of Independence- 1947 to 1997, Aperture Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Royal Festival Hall (London), Chicago Cultural Centre.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Artists who form part of a contemporary Indian photography show in Paris- III
Dominique Charlet & Fabien Charuau are co-curators of a photography show in Paris involving 10 talented contemporary artists from India at Gallery Duboys. Here is a quick introduction to the three of them:
Akshay Mahajan (b.1985) is probably best known for his portraits of India’s new urban youth - their lives, of stories told, of deception, of misplaced love, of lust, of wanting and of loneliness - show Indian life without embellishment, he explores another side of India; the place that he belongs to and understands.
His recent work focuses on another form of portraiture, that of personal histories. It explores the subjective truth of the moment or the performativity associated with the notions of being young: the imaginings of public and private personas. The work’s subtle formality is the product of intense and intimate observation, communicating a unique sense of time and place.
Binu Bhaskar explores the perpetual motion of humans living in cities around the world. The never-ending universal race to get somewhere or achieve something is captured in a series of highly evocative studies that illustrate the restless human psyche. He has a Diploma in Illustrative Photography (Fine Arts), Photography Studies College, Melbourne, Australia and a Bachelors Degree in English literature, Calicut University, India
Brijesh Patel has been nominated for Prix Pictet 3 in 2011.Based from London, United Kingdom, he is a freelance photographer specializing in editorial and documentary photography. His personal work reflects his strong interest in modern India, the social, economic and lifestyle changes that are being experienced by in excess of 400 million people. He has won numerous awards; the most recent are the Joan Wakelin Bursary from the Royal Photographic Society, and the Winston Churchill Fellowship award.
Kolkata based Soham Gupta is specialized in documenting social injustice and working with disadvantaged children, laborers and the homeless mentally ill. He works with the sole objective of witnessing and documenting injustice in today’s society and raise social awareness about issues that are often overlooked.
Summing up the recent Christie's auction results
The top ten works in the upcoming London sales of the international auction, house, Christie's are:
One of her artworks on offer got a price of £79,250 in comparison to an estimate in the range of £60,000-80,000. Atul Dodiya’s work received £265,250, comfortably crossing the estimated range of £150,000-250,000. Jitish Kallat got £145,250 (the estimated price was £120,000-180,000).
A Jehangir Sabavala work fetched an amount of £145,250 against an estimated range of £70,000-90,000. Souza's ‘French Doors’ was sold for £97,250, the ‘Nude Metamorphosed Into Insect’ was picked for a price of £85,250 against the lower estimate of £80,000.
A private collector from the UK purchased the ‘Landscape with Buildings’ for £85,250. The Untitled was also bought by a UK private collector for £79,250. Nilima Sheikh's record price, as mentioned above, stood at £79,250, while the Swaminathan work was purchased for £73,250 by an Indian private buyer, against the estimate of £50,000-70,000.
Christie's international director (Asian art), Hugo Weihe and the head of sale, Yamini Mehta stated, "The latest sale is historic in the South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art scene with the passing of Husain. It featured two lots by him, and both of them were well received. It was a fitting tribute to the great master. The success of late Tyeb Mehta work also reflects the continued demand for rare masterpieces."
- Atul Dodiya's ‘Father’
- Untied (Figure on Rickshaw) by Tyeb Mehta
- Jehangir Sabavala's ‘Whispered Intimations’
- Untitled (Eclipse) - 3 by Jitish Kallat
- Untitled (French Doors) by FN Souza
- Souza's 'Nude Metamorphosed Into Insect'
- Souza's Landscape with Buildings and an Untitled (Flagellation of Christ) work
- Nilima Sheikh's ‘Going Away’
- Jagdish Swaminathan's Untitled (Bird and Mountain Series)
One of her artworks on offer got a price of £79,250 in comparison to an estimate in the range of £60,000-80,000. Atul Dodiya’s work received £265,250, comfortably crossing the estimated range of £150,000-250,000. Jitish Kallat got £145,250 (the estimated price was £120,000-180,000).
A Jehangir Sabavala work fetched an amount of £145,250 against an estimated range of £70,000-90,000. Souza's ‘French Doors’ was sold for £97,250, the ‘Nude Metamorphosed Into Insect’ was picked for a price of £85,250 against the lower estimate of £80,000.
A private collector from the UK purchased the ‘Landscape with Buildings’ for £85,250. The Untitled was also bought by a UK private collector for £79,250. Nilima Sheikh's record price, as mentioned above, stood at £79,250, while the Swaminathan work was purchased for £73,250 by an Indian private buyer, against the estimate of £50,000-70,000.
Christie's international director (Asian art), Hugo Weihe and the head of sale, Yamini Mehta stated, "The latest sale is historic in the South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art scene with the passing of Husain. It featured two lots by him, and both of them were well received. It was a fitting tribute to the great master. The success of late Tyeb Mehta work also reflects the continued demand for rare masterpieces."
Saturday, June 11, 2011
A spotlight on the curator duo of ‘This Is Not That’
Gallery Duboys based in Paris hosts an exhibition entitled ‘This Is Not That’ of contemporary Indian photography. Here is a look at the curators’ duo who has conceptualized the event:
Dominique Charlet has served as CEO of Getty Images and also as the director of photo-journalism agency Sygma Presse and Taïga Images. Charlet now serves as Photography Art Director of Duboys. His involvement in contemporary photography includes advisory role with various companies and institutions for their photography collections and related events.
On the other hand, for the last more than a decade, Fabien Charuau has been working from India on a host of photo journalism, portraits and photo documentaries. Besides a solo of a couple of collections at Matthieu Foss, he has showed his work at the Voies Off Festival, France, and the Pingyao International Festival, China.
Fabien’s visual identity is defined by the confluence of two cultures; the one he was born in and the one he lives in. As a Hindi-speaking French man who is married to an Indian and who has lived a third of his life in India, he can effectively be seen as a hybrid of the east and the west, having embraced one world without abandoning the other. In his life in Bombay, he lives with the similarities and contradictions thrown up by two very different civilizations.
His photos float in the current of his everyday life in a continuous, inconclusive journey. Be it his documentaries, photojournalism or portraits; his visual language is defined by the way he looks at the body. He responds intuitively to the infinite possibilities of form that the human body can create. His images conjure a pulsating vitality; as if colours, bodies and events are about to collide into each other. This vital chaos in his work comes from the deep impression that life in India continues to leave on him.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Events to celebrate Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary
As part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore, ICCR has arranged the mega art-tour in Germany of an exhibition by Akar Prakar, entitled 'Enduring Legacy'. It consists of some exquisite paintings by leading and upcoming artists primarily inspired by Tagore.
The exhibition represents their view of it as perceived by them. Some of the facets covered are Rabindranath Tagore's pedagogue and also the impact of his art practice, poetry and philosophy on the younger generation of artists from India," Reena Lath, the director of Akar Prakar, mentions in an interview.
It aims at celebrating ‘the continuing relevance’ of the legendary painter-poet and also at encouraging the rich artistic creativity even among the younger generation, according to the director of ICCR (Kolkata), Reba Shome.
The organizers term it a landmark exhibit that is bound to make a major impact since the art showcased is of the highest quality in terms of content and form. It does not merely try to propagate false notions about Indian art and artists. The works are really wonderful, but not merely eye pleasing. Akar Prakar has tried to focus on the prevailing art scene in Bengal. The gallery has carved out an apt profile of their own, looking to sums up the art scene.
Meanwhile, a beautiful bust of ‘Gurudeb’ Tagore now adorns Jongno District in Seoul. A press release from ICCR notes: “Years before Korea was to get rid of foreign occupation, Rabindranath Tagore prophesied in one of his famous poems (The Lamp of the East) in 1929 that Korea would soon rise among the comity of nations like a star. "
As India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of this great thinker and litterateur, the Republic of Korea partakes in the country’s joy by installing a bronze bust in the cultural heart of Seoul. The four feet high metal masterpiece installed in Daehangro is exquisitely carved by renowned Indian sculptor Gautam Pal. It has been gifted by the ICCR to Korea on behalf of the government and the people of India.
The exhibition represents their view of it as perceived by them. Some of the facets covered are Rabindranath Tagore's pedagogue and also the impact of his art practice, poetry and philosophy on the younger generation of artists from India," Reena Lath, the director of Akar Prakar, mentions in an interview.
It aims at celebrating ‘the continuing relevance’ of the legendary painter-poet and also at encouraging the rich artistic creativity even among the younger generation, according to the director of ICCR (Kolkata), Reba Shome.
The organizers term it a landmark exhibit that is bound to make a major impact since the art showcased is of the highest quality in terms of content and form. It does not merely try to propagate false notions about Indian art and artists. The works are really wonderful, but not merely eye pleasing. Akar Prakar has tried to focus on the prevailing art scene in Bengal. The gallery has carved out an apt profile of their own, looking to sums up the art scene.
Meanwhile, a beautiful bust of ‘Gurudeb’ Tagore now adorns Jongno District in Seoul. A press release from ICCR notes: “Years before Korea was to get rid of foreign occupation, Rabindranath Tagore prophesied in one of his famous poems (The Lamp of the East) in 1929 that Korea would soon rise among the comity of nations like a star. "
As India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of this great thinker and litterateur, the Republic of Korea partakes in the country’s joy by installing a bronze bust in the cultural heart of Seoul. The four feet high metal masterpiece installed in Daehangro is exquisitely carved by renowned Indian sculptor Gautam Pal. It has been gifted by the ICCR to Korea on behalf of the government and the people of India.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
