Artists from abroad rub shoulders with their Indian counterparts

Apart from several renowned Indian artists, those from different parts of the world feature in a new show of watercolor works at Mumbai’s Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke.

KiKi Smith is a noteworthy feminist artist whose fondness for nature as well as her fascination with the human body is well-mapped. These have been areas for exploration for her that has led to a highly complex and controversial form of art. Born in 1954 in Nuremburg to a well-known minimalist, Tony Smith, she has used throughout her career themes like birth, multiple variations of the body (these include both the close albeit conflicting relationship existing between the exterior and, as well as the nervous system), elements of nature, hybrid’s between humans and animals and even fairytales as her subjects .

Another interesting participant is an artist whose identity as Pakistani-Muslim transplant, so to say, in the US has served as a vital element to her intriguing body of work. Ambreen Butt’s art underwent a major change especially as the 9/11 terror attacks shocked the western world. The cataclysmic event dramatically altered her artistic journey and experience. Her compositions, although still lyrical in nature, now turned inward. The damage and devastation in the wake of WTC tragedy, became self-introspective.

Prior to the tragic event, the artist would mostly create fictional female heroes that were identifiable with the Pakistan art tradition. Her narrative art - enchanting, empowering and equally sensual revolving around universal themes, touched upon themes like politics and the battle between good and the evil.

Another artist who draws our attention in the show is Tran Luong. A visual and performance artist, he has carved a niche for himself as Vietnam’s most exciting name. He is one of the forces stepping forward to shape the contemporary art movement in the mid 90s. His foray in the new media art has resulted in some major involving him as an artist and as a curator.

Watermark II’ involving a mystical mix of both Indian and international artists continues until Jul 30, 2011.

Works by renowned artists form part of ‘Watermark II’

Several renowned Indian artists from different parts of the world feature in a new show of watercolor works at Mumbai-based Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke.

Atul Dodiya has created a niche for himself not just in India but internationally. The history and culture of his home country plays a significant role in constructing the barrage of images that inform his oeuvre. Launching his career with a rather straightforward and cleverly deadpan realist approach, he switched to the fragmented and multi-layered approach from the literal one in the mid-90s.

Conscious of history, his rich oeuvre reflects his deep knowledge about immediate surroundings, current events and ancient religious traditions. He often quotes from the recesses of Indian as well as Western art traditions. Even his potent pictorial language can be attributed to his to adoption and usage of the vocabulary of Western contemporary art. Driven by intellect, intensity and ideas, the internationally celebrated artist continues to experiment with many forms.

On the other hand, art history, especially of the amazing Asian pictorial traditions, tends to draw Nilima Sheikh towards the multitude of materials, formats and surfaces that might conveniently contain her interests. It also prompts her to develop dialects for accommodating the lexicons of pre-modern art histories.

Bhupen Khakhar, often termed India's first Pop artist, displayed engagement with the different shades of life and bright colors on canvas confined to calendar art. In the early stages of his career, his figures resembled more traditional and early modern miniature painting form of India. Like his plays and shirt stories, his paintings were also inflected with a sense of humor and irony.

The sensitive artist started painting deadpan imagery largely drawn from life in urban as well as small town India, and focused on workers from middle-class professions. The artist blended the late 18th-19th century tradition of Company painting with a modernist Pop style in his portrayals of ordinary laborers. Later, he also incorporated the experiences of homosexuality into his practice that would often be a core theme for the rest of his art career.

Aji V.N. and Sosa Joseph at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke

A new group exhibition of watercolors by artists including Kiki Smith, Nilima Sheikh, Tran Luong, Aji V.N., Ambreen Butt, Sosa Joseph, KH Ara, Bhupen Khakhar and Atul Dodiya takes place at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai.

Focused on the expressive nature of painting and on its poetic content, Aji V.N. originally from Kerala has been living and working in Rotterdam for ten years; it is the geographical and cultural space that lies between the two that stimulates his interest. The barren landscapes depicted in his drawings populated with thorny and elaborately contorted plants reference the dead landscapes of Persian miniature painting.

Yet whether this landscape is menacing or enchanted is to a certain extent irrelevant because as the artist explains, despite being figurative, these drawings are largely hermetic, withdrawn from subject matter, and principally concerned with a series of formal moves. Aji V.N.'s use of charcoal has the tactile richness of a finely grained, multi-layered surface, the graphite sometimes so intense, so unrelenting as if it were a recording of some endless, existential experience. The blackness extends over the entire paper, as if rubbed in, almost incised into the surface.

On the other hand, embodying images drawn from the world around her – mainly the graphic experience of coastal living in Kerala – Sosa Joseph has, like many other artists through history, investigated the emotional and spatial qualities of her environment and that of her personal life, blurring the boundaries between the two in works that have a comprehensive visual impact.

In both her small and large format paintings we confront the artist's world of reality crossed with fantasy: nature, often aqueous, spills over with the catch of the day stacked high in nets and baskets, crabs and shrimps still scuttling for shelter. There is a frequent withdrawal into domestic space with representations of pots and pans and still-life arrangements of cutlery, crockery, flowers and fruit. An added depth is proposed by the sensuality suggested by movements and textures.

(Information courtesy: Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke)

A show that celebrates Tagore school legacy

A unique artistic collaboration between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Kolkata-based Akar Prakar has resulted in an elaborate exhibition of artists from the state of West Bengal.

The event has been arranged in Munich and Berlin to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of legendary poet-painter Rabindranath Tagore. The organizers have collated works by Aditya Basak, Jayashree Chakravorty, Shraboni Roy, Manjari Chakrabarty, Shraboni Roy, Debraj Goswami, and Adip Datta, among others. The selection has been made keeping in mind the Tagore school legacy. The Munich show is being hosted at the Neumeister Gallery.

The ICCR was founded in 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India’s first Education Minister. The Council helps formulate and implement policies pertaining to India’s external cultural relations, to foster mutual understanding between India and other countries and to promote cultural exchanges with other peoples.

Its objectives are to participate in the formulation and implementation of policies and programs relating to India's external cultural relations; to foster cultural relations and mutual understanding with other countries; to promote cultural exchange: and to develop relations with national and inter-national cultural organizations.

Akar Prakar, is an open – air, display friendly art gallery. Reena and Abhijit Lath bring to it three generations of art insight. It has supported fledging artists and has featured several seniors. The gallery is open to all medium of expression, without restricting itself to only paintings. Therefore, hosting sculpture shows, installations, photography & prints expositions too.

The venue strives to make a difference in its projection of contemporary Indian art, not only through its many shows but also through its catalogues, art journals and books on important artists and of late, is realizing the necessity of going beyond the frontiers of the country and cooperating with kindred organizations, to showcase works of significant artists from India.

VAF@The Guild, 2011

The Mumbai based Guild Gallery presents a Video & Animation Film Festival (VAF@The Guild, 2011). It’s a first of its kind project taking place in the city.

Curated by Delhi based critic and curator, JohnyML, this innovative project revolves around the new concepts of video and animation filmmaking in the contemporary art world. JohnyML was also incidentally the initiator and curator of Video Wednesdays @ Gallery Espace, the first ever year long video art exhibition in 2008-09.

Aditi Chitre, Iram Ghurfan, Gigi Scaria, Kavita Singh Kale, K.M.Madhusudhanan, Neha Thakar, Pooja Iranna, Riyas Komu, Samia Singh, Srinivas Bhakta and Vidya Kamat are the participating artists. As it is an ongoing project more artists will be featured in the coming sessions. As an exhibition strategy, VAF @ The Guild uses both the plasma screens and projection systems to exhibit the video and animation films. These works will be shown in loop and after a week of the project’s commencement, the videos and artists may change as more artists and their works will add on.

Explaining the background of this unique project, the curator observes: “With the collapsing boundaries between different art genres more and more interdisciplinary practices get space and appreciation in the field of visual arts as a part of the general cultural production. The galleries today are aware of this fact and they have started facilitating such works of art and projects. However, in India exclusive video and animation projects are not still in vogue. VAF @ The Guild is one of such pioneering efforts to showcase the videos and animation films of the eminent as well as emerging artists of India,”

Internationally videos have been around in the mainstream visual culture for a long time now. However of late animation films as a genre of video making is gaining ground and a lot of young emerging artists especially with training in art/design/technology are experimenting and coming up with new genre of works. By bringing video and animations on the same platform, The Guild hopes to open up new dialogues.

(Information courtesy: The Guild, Mumbai)

A cutting-edge Video & Animation Film Festival in Mumbai

The Mumbai based Guild Gallery presents a cutting-edge Video & Animation Film Festival in Mumbai.

Vidya Kamat and Pooja Iranna have been directing their energies towards articulating the liminal spaces of the city. While the latter takes architecture as a point of departure, the former looks at the anthropological and mythological implications of the women’s existence and identity as a focal point of her works. Their videos also have caught the attention of the art world.

While Iram Ghurfan, Aditi Chitre, Srinivas Bhakta and Samia Singh invest their energies purely in the creation of animation shorts and movies, and also attempt to cut the barriers that exist between the mainstream gallery oriented art practice and the commercial use of such talents in the field of advertisement and publicity, there are artists like Kavita Singh Kale who move between these two realms with equal verve by producing advertisements, animation movies, paintings and sculptural installations.

Gigi Scaria, one of the participants in the 54th Venice Biennale Indian Pavillion, presents a work, titled ‘the Elevator from the Subcontinent’. The artist is known for his paintings, sculptures, videos, digital works and carefully crafted sculptural installations that include video as a major component in them.

Neha Thakar plays with the idea of tangible & intangible; visible & invisible properties of the materials like Water, Ice, Smell, Gas & extra. The ice, which is the solid form of water, turns in to water and finally to its origin through the process of natural exhaustion.

Academically trained in painting and graphics art, K.M.Madhusudhanan is an internationally acclaimed film maker and the national award winner for the best film (Bioscope- 2009). His short films and videos are highly acclaimed all over the world and his works have been showcased in MoMA and most other major international film festivals.

Actor Naseeruddin Shah stares out of a single-shot video frame while a poem scrolls across –‘I have to conclude my lord…… that you tricked me to serve you…’ in Riyas Komu’s 13 minute video

The project, VAF@The Guild, is on view until 15th July, 2011.

(Information courtesy: The Guild, Mumbai)

‘The Strangling Power of Dust and Stars’ by Chitra Ganesh

Simultaneously, ‘The Strangling Power of Dust and Stars’ by Chitra Ganesh takes place at Berlin-based Nature Morte. This significant show features a large-scale multimedia installation made on-site, a series of new drawings, works done on canvas as well as dazzling digital collages.

She has created a series of large scale digital prints presenting densely-packed, science fictive, and supernatural scenes. These prints build upon the artist's earlier collages, in which she appropriated a popular Indian comic book series, Amar Chitra Katha. The new works are layered with both art historical and popular references to print culture. She also has produced charcoal drawings that depict film actresses from the 1920s and 1930s, starring in Indo-German co-productions.

Chitra Ganesh’s work is a mix of separate productive moves that work in a perfect harmony. Even while firmly rooted in a Western, postmodern discourse, her cultural references allow her to convey the proven principle of a multiplicity as a spirit that draws together.

Recovering buried histories to consciously bring them into a public and contemporary realm has informed her art practice and her working with contemporary/ historical political figures and mass mediated imagery. She states, “This imagery has not been fully explored; these stories contain question marks that can be best articulated through imaginative visual language.”

Her diverse oeuvre that includes installations and sculptural works is largely an outcome of a mélange of factors, such as queer politics, present day imperialism, lyric poetry, mythological narratives, and erased moments in South Asian history. Treating these as a starting point, she integrates them with her mythic imagery, to conceive a hybrid world, which articulates both psychic transformation and historical conflict.

While firmly rooted in a Western, postmodern discourse, Chitra Ganesh’s cultural references let her convey the principle of a multiplicity as a spirit, which draws together, and not breaks apart. In her comic book like sequences of digital prints, the artist includes snippets of text, successfully marrying with the post-modern in a truly unique aesthetic.