galerie 88 - Art Chennai
galerie 88 - Art Chennai
galerie 88 - Art Chennai
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GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
Abani Sen<br />
Gobardhan Ash<br />
Sudhir Ranjan Khastgir<br />
Radhacharan Bagchi<br />
Sunil Madhav Sen<br />
Mrinal Kanti Das<br />
Amina Ahmed Kar<br />
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
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ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
GALLERY PROFILE<br />
Galerie <strong>88</strong> opened its first gallery in Kolkata way back in 19<strong>88</strong>. Over the last fifteen years it has expanded<br />
its activity in Kolkata by adding two more gallery space to the existing one and has also opened its<br />
branch in Colaba in South Mumbai with 4000 sq ft of gallery space. We have, during the last 20 years,<br />
organised nearly 200 shows including artwork of all the present important artists of India and has<br />
curated several important art show in London and Singapore. <strong>Art</strong>ists represented by Galerie <strong>88</strong> include<br />
M F Husain, S H Raza, F N Souza, Krishna Reddy, Somnath Hore, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharya,<br />
Lalu Shaw, Badri Narayn and Laxma Goud. Galerie <strong>88</strong> devotes an equal intensity in promoting the<br />
Gen next of Indian contemporary <strong>Art</strong> which includes Paresh Maity, Chittrovanu Mazumdar, S Harsha<br />
Vardhan, Chandra Bhattacharjee, Partha Shaw, Anupam Chakraborty, Mithu Sen, Samit Das, Riyas Komu<br />
and Kanchan Dasgupta.<br />
Galerie <strong>88</strong> has its own publication programme and has, over the last decade, published researched<br />
catalogues and books on art of India today.<br />
Galerie <strong>88</strong>, in the recent past, was chosen by leading corporate houses to curate special art shows on<br />
selected themes, both in India and abroad.
ABANI SEN<br />
(1905-1972)<br />
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
Abani Sen was born in Dhaka, now in Bangladesh in 1905. After his schooling, he joined the Government<br />
School of <strong>Art</strong>s and Craft, Calcutta when Percy Brown was the principal.<br />
Sen inherited the socio-politico-economic situation of his times to which he was a witness and a<br />
sufferer. His art from the beginning did not focus on depicting the dark happenings of the time. He did<br />
not overtly record the happenings of the period nor did not directly paint pain and suffering of the<br />
people as did Chitto Prasad, Zainul Abedin, and Somnath Hore. But in a subtle depiction of moods he<br />
conveyed sadness and melancholia that inhabited whole society. He painted from his subconscious. His<br />
agitated handling of pictorial space, use of black and grey, and whimsical line albeit suggestive of Chinese<br />
and Japanese style rendering conveyed a sombre mood. He disagreed with the rigorous realism of the<br />
Wesyern academic style as much as the delicacy of the romantic revival of Moughal miniatures. He set<br />
up the <strong>Art</strong> Rebel Centre in 1932. For him, aesthetic issues in painting evolved naturally from life and<br />
living, from experiencing and observing, rather than from an abstract principle. There is strong element<br />
of expressionism in many renderings of animals especially when he works in water colour. Sen’s mother<br />
and child works are highly evocative.<br />
Any puritanical view of Abani Sen will hamper the cradebility of such an important Indian modernist<br />
painter. Tradition, influences, origanilty and experiments are often fated in the works of Abani Sen.<br />
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ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
ABANI SEN – Untitled, Watercolour on paper, 14 x 20 inches.<br />
ABANI SEN – Untitled, Watercolour on paper, 22 x 14 inches.
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
GOBARDHAN ASH<br />
(1907 - 1976)<br />
Gobardhan Ash was born in 1907 in Begampur, in Hooghly district, West Bengal. He studied at Government<br />
College of <strong>Art</strong>s and Crafts, Calcutta. Later he became a student of Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury at<br />
Government College of <strong>Art</strong>s and Crafts, Madras. He served as a professor at Government College of<br />
<strong>Art</strong>s and Crafts, Calcutta from 1953 to 1955.<br />
In the formative period of his career as an artist, Gobardhan experienced the 1943 Bengal Famine<br />
and that severe experience changed the entire mode of his artistic expressiveness. In 1950 he joined<br />
the Calcutta group. He rejected the nostalgic sentimentalism of Abanindranath Tagore and accepted<br />
the vigour and vitality of the modernist expressionist style and method. His work of late 1940s has<br />
resonance of Benod Behari Mukherjee noticeable in the imagery and stylistic features. Ash himself<br />
formed a group named <strong>Art</strong> Rebel Centre in 1933 and his endeavour was to set an alternative trend.<br />
He did paintings in oil, watercolour and pastel. His contribution towards establishing oil medium in<br />
Bengal art is considerable. His approach and method in creating art was fore-grounded within modernist<br />
tradition especially expressionism. The raw emotions, which Ash exhibits in his works are disturbing<br />
yet rendered with power to evoke the sordid human conditions of poverty or famine. An artist of<br />
enormous skill and master of diverse techniques, Ash’s works today are much admired and appreciated<br />
for their innovative style and approach and he remains a seminal artist of pre independent India.<br />
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GOBARDHAN ASH – Autumn / 1994, Watercolour on paper, 14 x 22<br />
inches.<br />
GOBARDHAN ASH – Morning Light / 1995, Watercolour on paper, 26 x 20<br />
inches.
SUDHIR RANJAN<br />
KHASTGIR<br />
(1907 - 1976)<br />
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
Sudhir Ranjan Khastgir was born in Calcutta in 1907. He received his art education in Kala Bhavan,<br />
Santiniketan. Ramkinkar Baij was his classmate. Later he went Deutch Academy, Munich for further study.<br />
Khastgir’s works are a personal quest for moral and artistic integrity during the time when the country<br />
was trying to win freedom. He traveled through Western Europe just before World War II. He had a<br />
solo exposition in India House, London, which was inaugurated by the famous British sculptor Eric Gill.<br />
Khastgir was a sculptor-painter. His career as a sculptor began in Kala Bhavan. It is an incandescent<br />
narrative of people as they work, congregate to worship, sing and dance, relive their mythical past,<br />
enjoy their epics and suffer alone. He also painted exquisite landscapes, riverscapes and seascapes.<br />
He worked in gouche, tempera, watercolours, charcoal, pastel and occasionally in oils. His people are<br />
stylised, elongated and there are elements of abstraction. The arrangement is mostly two-dimensional<br />
with occasional suggestions of built-in three-dimensional space.<br />
Floods from the river Gomti in 1960 left his mind under a great physiological and psychological strain.<br />
This made him recede into a shell and communicate less. He built a house in Shantiniketan called<br />
Palash and moved there. He was unique because he accepted the `return to nature` philosophy of<br />
Shantiniketan without accepting its style. In 1963 he was invited by Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharat,<br />
Justice Sudhir Ranjan Das to take over as principal of Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan.<br />
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SUDHIR RANJAN KHASTGIR - Untitled,<br />
Mixed media on paper, 30 x 25 inches.<br />
SUDHIR RANJAN KHASTGIR - Woman,<br />
Mixed media on paper, 14 x 10 inches.
RADHACHARAN<br />
BAGCHI<br />
(1910 - 1977)<br />
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
Radha Charan was born at Pabna, in Bangladesh in 1910. He graduated in 1939 from Govertment<br />
School of <strong>Art</strong> and Craft, Calcutta and came in direct contact with Abanindranath Tagore and Mukul<br />
Dey. In 1951 he joined Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. In 1963-73, he was officiated twice as the Principal of<br />
Kala-Bhavan, Santiniketan. Radha Charan’s versatile aesthetic trajectory traces a rapid movement from<br />
one medium to another medium, from one school to another. He was a master painter working in oil,<br />
tempera, opaque and transperant watercolour besides being competent with Abanindranath Tagore’s<br />
wash painting style. His great virtuosity still mesmerises viewers. He also has a number of graphics in<br />
dry point, etching, lithograph and linocut.<br />
Apart from neo-Bengal works, there are Bagchi’s paintings on canvas in oil that conjure up remembrance<br />
of European paintings. From these works one can fathom the catholicity of his temperament and taste.<br />
His series of portraits and landscapes in oil speak of various Western schoolings that he was attracted<br />
to. He had searched for a technique that could accommodate an Indian theme and content in a<br />
Western format. The love-hate relationship towards an intriguing culture during British imperialist times<br />
also explains the strange variety of his style. His painterly attitude reveals the depth of the spiritual crisis<br />
that Indians of that period endured. Radha Charan had confessed his debt to Nandalal Bose, but beyond<br />
that he himself had tried to discover the real roots of human feeling and expression.<br />
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RADHA CHARAN BAGCHI - ‘’Bhubaneswar<br />
Temple’’, Tempera on paper, 35 x 28 inches.<br />
RADHA CHARAN BAGCHI - Ekalavya’s Guru<br />
Dakshina, Tempera on paper, 39 x 26 inches.
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
SUNIL MADHAV SEN<br />
(1910 - 1979)<br />
Sunil Madhav Sen was born in 1910, in Purulia District, West Bengal. He was self-taught as an artist and a<br />
lawyer by profession. As a founder member of the Calcutta Group, Sen was one of the architects of the<br />
contemporary art movement in India. His search for a modernist language in art, led him to experiment<br />
with both Western and indigenous styles, and eventually develop his own creative idiom.<br />
He received inspiring support from Atul Bose and Satish Sinha, both renowned for their academic realist<br />
practice. He frequently visited the studios of Abanindranath Tagore and received encouragement from<br />
him. Despite his occasional rendezvous with nature, it is the human body to which Sen gave maximum<br />
attention. The painter always had a great fascination for folk art. The impact of folk art on Sen’s practice<br />
came through his contact with Jamini Roy. The result of this can be seen in his paintings, when the iconic<br />
frontality of his figures and the basic simplicity of forms would indicate a distinctly individual reference<br />
to folk practices. It was his love for the folk and the traditional art and sculptures that inspired him to<br />
experiment a lot.<br />
Sen used the impasto technique widely. He made various sculptural images on canvas and hard boards.<br />
He stuck stone chips on them with glue, and then gives it a coat of paint to get a desired sculptural<br />
effect. Some of his works exude a sculptural quality, and some conceptualisations reflect a startlingly<br />
radical ‘modernity’.<br />
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SUNIL MADHAV SEN - Untitled, Mixed media<br />
on paper, 22 x 11 inches.<br />
SUNIL MADHAV SEN - Untitled, Mixed media<br />
on paper, 27 x 17 inches.
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
MRINAL KANTI DAS<br />
(b.1928 - 1990)<br />
Mrinal Kanti Das was born in Midnapore town, West Bengal in 1928. His father Hemanta Kumar Das<br />
encouraged and nurtured his artistic talents. After finishing school, he studied at the Government College<br />
of <strong>Art</strong> and Craft, Calcutta and graduated in 1948. In Santiniketan, he was able to forge an intimacy with<br />
Binod Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. He was a shy man who abhorred the limelight.<br />
Das was a prolific painter. In art school, he was deeply influenced by his mentor Nandolal Bose’s disciple<br />
Satyendranath Banerjee. The other teacher who left a lasting impression on Mrinal Kanti’s mind was<br />
Basanta Ganguly. Ganguly was a master of oils and taught Mrinal kanti to observe life and nature and to<br />
recreate it vividly with the brush.<br />
As a painter Mrinal Kanti served the neo-Indian School that Abanindranath Tagore had founded. Das’s<br />
media were mostly wash, opaque and transparent watercolours, mixed media, ink and brush or pen.<br />
He never overtly referred to Ajanta or medieval miniatures, yet much of the tradition is operative. His<br />
pictorial language has found visual correlatives for the exuberance of nature and people. He portrayed<br />
women in a variety of moods and postures. Sensitive use of raw and subdued hues and geometrical<br />
arrangements of his composition focus attention on formal qualities which are purely pictorial and<br />
graphic. This deliberate execution of reality and imagination marks him out as a significant painter of his<br />
time.<br />
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ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
MRINAL KANTI DAS - Untitled / 1968,<br />
Wash on paper, 22 x 13 inches.<br />
MRINAL KANTI DAS - Untitled / 1974, Mixed media on paper, 11 x 18<br />
inches.
ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
AMINA AHMED KAR<br />
(b.1930)<br />
Amina Ahmed Kar was born in Calcutta in 1930. She began her artistic training at the Government<br />
College of <strong>Art</strong> and Craft, Calcutta before joining the <strong>Art</strong> Department of the Delhi Polytechnic. She<br />
completed her post graduate studies in France at the Academic Julian. Later she worked at Hayter’s<br />
Printmaking Studio and also worked with Ceasar Domela, a founder of ‘De Stijl’ group, Holland. She<br />
did a course in Greco-Roman art and received her diploma from the Institute of <strong>Art</strong> and Archeology,<br />
University of Paris. She then took a course in <strong>Art</strong> History at Ecole Du Louvre, specializing in the art and<br />
Archeology of India and the Indian influence in South East and East Asia. Finally she received another<br />
diploma from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes at Sorbonne.<br />
Amina trained under Ceasar Domela, one of the foremost abstract painters of 20th Century and learnt<br />
the finer points of non-figurative expression and geometric composition. She painted, researched, wrote<br />
papers and lectured on art with great intensity and scholarly authority.<br />
She married famous sculptor Chintamoni Kar. The experience of giving birth to a child with impaired<br />
brains broke the spirit of Amina. She retired from the art world and retreated into the anonymity of<br />
the home, spending rest of her life as a home-maker. Till her death she did not come out of seclusion<br />
to resume a truly promising career as an artist.<br />
Some of Amina’s works are non-figurative; structures within shapes are exposed with verve and skill<br />
while in others there are remnants of figurative embedded in the surface. In her paintings the application<br />
of lines and colours build an overwhelming visual experience. Fragments of dreams, past memories and<br />
her experience of everyday happenings have uttered in her works.<br />
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ART GALLERY | GALERIE <strong>88</strong><br />
AMINA AHMED KAR – Untitled, Watercolour on<br />
paper, 13 x 10 inches.<br />
AMINA AHMED KAR – Untitled, Watercolour on<br />
paper, 14 x 10 inches.
LATITUDE 28<br />
K. G. Subramanyan<br />
Jogen Chowdhury<br />
Baiju Parthan<br />
G. R. Iranna<br />
Manjunath Kamath<br />
Rajesh Ram<br />
Dilip Chobisa<br />
Siddhartha Kararwal<br />
Shivani Aggarwal<br />
ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
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GALLERY PROFILE<br />
LATITUDE 28 is a creative venture by Bhavna Kakar, a specialist in pre-modern art history with more<br />
than a decade’s experience as a curator, writer, and art consultant. Bhavna is also the founder and editor<br />
of the national award-winning art quarterly, TAKE on art (www.takeonartmagazine.com).<br />
The gallery is located in New Delhi’s dynamic art district of Lado Sarai and the name is itself a nod<br />
to the capital’s geographic position on the globe - with India becoming an ever- expanding player in<br />
the global art arena, and Delhi at the leading edge of that movement. The brand aims to cultivate a<br />
holistic environment that introduces collectors to emerging talents who probe the creative and material<br />
boundaries of their art practices through greater interaction and experimentation.<br />
The primary vision is to further artists’ careers by supporting the production and presentation of<br />
their works in stimulating collections. The shows conceived and presented by LATITUDE 28 focus on<br />
a grounded and innovative curatorial strategy. The point is not simply to showcase, but to foster an<br />
expansive discourse between artist and viewer. LATITUDE 28 represents contemporary Indian art not<br />
only through eclectic exhibitions in the white cube of its distinctive gallery space, but also by supporting<br />
residencies and the organization of outreach programs, seminars, and talks.<br />
Since the gallery’s establishment, a wide range of dynamic young artists as well as established masters<br />
have been exhibited. The collection of shows includes: ‘Veer Munshi: Shrapnel, The Chamber + Pandit<br />
Houses’, curated by Ranjit Hoskote; ‘Slipping through the Cracks’, curated by Meera Menezes; ‘And the<br />
Falchion Passed Through his Neck...’, curated by Jasmine Wahi;‘Anupam Sud: Preparatory Assertions -<br />
Notes from Sketch Books’; ‘In You is the Illusion of Each Day’, curated by Maya Kovskaya; ‘Love is a 4<br />
Letter Word’; ‘The Pill’, curated by Avni Doshi; ‘Nandita Kumar: LeT tHe BRAinFly’; ‘Sujith SN: Map is<br />
Not the Territory’ (Sujith SN was among the 20 shortlisted artists for The Skoda Award 2010); ‘Urban<br />
Testimonies’; and ‘Size Matters or Does It? I and II’, curated by Bhavna Kakar. LATITUDE 28 has also<br />
exhibited in Indian as well as International art fairs, including India <strong>Art</strong> Fair 2012; Solo booth of Rajesh<br />
Ram @ <strong>Art</strong> Stage Singapore 2011; India <strong>Art</strong> Summit 2009 and 2011; <strong>Art</strong> Expo 2009 (Mumbai). Some<br />
of the forthcoming shows to be presented by the gallery are: ‘Vasudha Thozur: Party Plot’ and a solo<br />
exhibition of recent works by Prajakta Palav Aher at Asia One, <strong>Art</strong> HK 12.
ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
K. G. SUBRAMANYAN<br />
(b.1924)<br />
K.G. Subramanyan is among the few artists who have explored the possibilities of modern art from<br />
a different perspective, giving new dimensions to the human figure by making them appear more as<br />
characters from various myths and traditional narratives, populating a composition quite the contrary.<br />
As an artist he is extraordinarily versatile, cherishing the facility to work in diverse media, sizes, and<br />
techniques over a stylistic conformity to a single medium, genre, size, technique, and manner of<br />
visualization.<br />
A prolific writer, scholar, teacher and art historian, Subramanyan uses his in-depth knowledge of various<br />
artistic traditions to create fantastical images of wit and eroticism that are universal in their appeal,<br />
yet coupled with iconic symbols drawn from Indian legends and folklore. Subramanyan has time and<br />
again aimed at blurring the boundaries between art and the artisan. The artist has also dabbled in glass<br />
painting and toy making, even weaving, which is generally considered ‘artisanal’. Even in his written works,<br />
the exploration of art as a language or means of communication is a recurring theme. Subramanyan has<br />
also illustrated as well as authored fiction for children.<br />
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ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
K. G. SUBRAMANYAN – Goats in Eden, Watercolour on board<br />
and varnished, 23.6 x 17.7 inches.
ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
JOGEN CHOWDHURY<br />
(b.1939)<br />
A revered painter and a master, Jogen Chowdhury’s works are immediately recognizable for their<br />
cross-hatched, weathered subjects. His expressionistic style of painting, captures in his subject matter<br />
the circumstances and sentiments that draw the strings of their existence. Dabbling in the anti-aesthetic,<br />
with distortion and his unique use of lines, he conjures this characteristic style which emotes the trauma,<br />
hopes, dreams and subjective beauty. The pathos of tragic comedy defines his works. Born in a village<br />
near Kotaliparha, now Bangladesh, themes of exile, nostalgia and yearning are sub-textual suggestions<br />
that have persisted in his works over time. From his earlier landscapes to later portraits, his style has<br />
been influenced by the investment in detail often observed in the Kalighat pats, whether the scale of his<br />
works are small or large. The artist lives and works in Santiniketan, West Bengal.<br />
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ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
JOGEN CHOWDHURY – Untitled / 2011, Mixed media on<br />
paper, 5 x 5.5 inches.
MYTHOLOGY<br />
BAIJU PARTHAN<br />
(b.1956)<br />
ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
Baiju Parthan is considered to be an important new media art pioneer within the Indian contemporary<br />
art context. Parthan worked as an engineer initially and his initiation into the world of art started with<br />
a chance encounter with an <strong>Art</strong> History book. Following this, pursuing his interest he moved to Goa to<br />
pursue his Bachelor’s degree in Fine <strong>Art</strong>s from the Goa College of <strong>Art</strong>s. Here the alternative lifestyle<br />
and culture of the place inspired him, as did his readings in Philosophy and mythology. He also pursued<br />
these subjects academically at the University of Bombay.<br />
His eclectic background is what characteristically defines Baiju Parthan’s works. Informed by mythology<br />
and technology, his works capture an interstice between the two, a crisis of tradition and technology<br />
manifesting in a unique blend of the two, and how they complement each other. It was possibly his<br />
aptitude for science that allowed him to be one of the first artists in the country to pick up on<br />
the enveloping influence of cyberspace and the digital realm on social realities, incorporating these<br />
elements in his work. This knowingness probably enabled him to cross over from painting to experiment<br />
with more innovative mediums such as material that allowed for magnetic fields to dictate the formal<br />
elements of his work and more interactive, programming-based art.<br />
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BAIJU PARTHAN – Truth Serum-1 / 2011, Acrylic on Arches<br />
paper, 33 x 20 inches.
G. R. IRANNA<br />
(b.1970)<br />
G. R. IRANNA – Green Land / 2011, Acrylic on Tarpaulin, 66 x 104 inches.<br />
GR Iranna is amongst the set of contemporary Indian artists whose prolific lineage of solo exhibitions<br />
has established and deepened the premise of his aesthetic query and with each growing step, reformed<br />
and moulded the visual means of doing so. Iranna has consistently employed the device of symbolic<br />
representation, directly in his sculptures and canvasses to comment on the system of institutionalised<br />
violence and aggression within human civilizations and offered the alternate idea of resistance. More<br />
than questioning the ‘absurdity’ of life, his oeuvre instills the idea of meaning and purpose in human life<br />
through the quality of visual serenity inherent in the pictorial surface.<br />
Born in 1970 in Karnataka, Iranna obtained his B.F.A. from the College of Visual <strong>Art</strong>s in Gulbarga and<br />
M.F.A. from Delhi College of <strong>Art</strong>. Iranna is a recipient of the National Academy award in 1997 and the<br />
M.F.Husain and Ram Kumar award. He has also been nominated from India for the ABPF Signature <strong>Art</strong><br />
Prize 08, Singapore.<br />
The artist lives and works in New Delhi.<br />
ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
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MANJUNATH KAMATH –<br />
Yes it’s all Mine, Archival print.<br />
MANJUNATH KAMATH<br />
(b.1972)<br />
Manjunath Kamath tells stories with his images. His narratives, however, are altered and adjusted<br />
constantly, adapting fluidly according to the environment they are narrated in, and resulting in a different<br />
meaning each time a story is told. As a visual artist, Kamath feels impelled to regularly reinvent his<br />
method of storytelling. By relentlessly working on his articulation and modernizing his techniques, the<br />
artist continuously updates his visual vocabulary.<br />
The artist’s need to draw and hold his viewers’ attention is palpable in his varied use of painting, drawing,<br />
sculpture and video. With the help of these disparate genres he creates narratives that are gripping<br />
in content, even though they are composed of simple, commonplace elements. Thus Kamath’s forte<br />
ultimately lies in creating fantasies out of the ordinary.
RAJESH RAM<br />
RAJESH RAM – Untitled / 2012, Fiberglass and Cloth, 12 x 14 x 21 inches<br />
(Sculpture), 51 x 24 x 14 inches (Display with cloth).<br />
ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
Rajesh Ram is a young artist based in New Delhi practicing both as painter and sculptor using a strong<br />
visual vocabulary that builds on pointed references. The artist comes from rural suburbs of India and<br />
through use of a vibrant palette and forms, he readily refers to the visual repertoires which are signifier<br />
of a social belief, time and class in the Indian urban-rural space. Ram’s work reminds us that words<br />
are not merely modes and tools of communication; rather they contain within them the histories of<br />
societies and the construction, projection and reading of identities. Rajesh is not one to cloak the world<br />
in despair, he points gently, beautifully, imaginatively towards situations. His art is heroic, true, but it does<br />
not valorize his subjects’ suffering, which can have disturbing ideological undertones. What it does is<br />
show reality in all its honesty, despair but also beauty and gives us the simple path towards betterment.<br />
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DILIP CHOBISA<br />
(b.1978)<br />
DILIP CHOBISA – Untitled / 2011, Graphite on paper, painted wooden frame<br />
and glass, 24 x 24 inches.<br />
Primarily trained as a sculptor, Dilip refuses to walk the lines of conventional or academic sculpture<br />
making, yet his works are all about volumes, spaces and depths. His art works are intriguing, and one<br />
cannot help but notice the strategically minimalist attitude in his works. The art works strike a balance<br />
between aesthetic experiences and the rigor behind the process of creation, which results in a pleasant<br />
equilibrium between response and communication. Dilip is an artist who strongly emphasizes on his<br />
experiments with the materials he works with. One who is familiar with his art works would notice<br />
that he walks the fine line between the peripheries of coplanar images and reliefs. They appear two<br />
dimensional but not quite, that is they are fairly illusionary, they can somehow make the viewer believe<br />
that the spaces in his works are actually three dimensional.
SIDDHARTHA<br />
KARARWAL<br />
(b.1984)<br />
ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
SIDDHARTHA KARARWAL– Funny bone / 2012, Woolen sweaters and mugs, 12 x 12 inches.<br />
Siddhartha Kararwal’s creative practice revolves around the use of everyday, mundane materials. Plastic<br />
bags, foam sheets, firecrackers, cardboard, bronze, iron, copper, fibre, clay, plaster of paris, etc., mould<br />
themselves into seductively raw sculptures. In a state of dichotomy, Siddartha Kararwal probes the<br />
existential core vis-a-vis his space and the tangible materials that constitute it. The artist stimulates<br />
visual assimilation through a body of work that sprouts out of polemics arising from the privilege of an<br />
embodied experience.<br />
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ART GALLERY | LATITUDE 28<br />
SHIVANI AGGARWAL – Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 inches (diptych).<br />
SHIVANI AGGARWAL<br />
(1975)<br />
Shivani Aggarwal’s practice primarily started with the concept of layering. Her images dealt with the<br />
construction of an identity through clothes (a layer on the skin). How we layer ourselves in these societal<br />
norms, conventions and get accustomed to it is what Shivani’s work primarily deals with. These layers<br />
expresse the social, cultural and gender beliefs, which have been woven into the fabric of our minds.<br />
She is currently involved with images of ‘the rose’ where it becomes a metaphor for the self, memories,<br />
situations, or simply an object for discussion, which is being constantly constructed or deconstructed<br />
like a fabric. Threads, needles, scissors and numerous other elements related to sewing and knitting find<br />
way in her visual language.
Rohini Devasher<br />
M. Pravat<br />
ManilRohit<br />
ART GALLERY | NATURE MORTE<br />
NATURE MORTE<br />
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ART GALLERY | NATURE MORTE<br />
GALLERY PROFILE<br />
Nature Morte was started by Peter Nagy in New York’s East Village in 1982, where it continued until<br />
19<strong>88</strong>. In 1997, Nagy resurrected the gallery in New Delhi and since then it has become one of India’s<br />
leading galleries, focusing on art forms in a wide variety of mediums and participating in many of the<br />
world’s top art fairs. The gallery represents some of India’s best known contemporary artists, many of<br />
whom have gone on to international prominence, including Subodh Gupta, Dayanita Singh, Anita Dube,<br />
Bharti Kher, Raqs Media Collective, Mithu Sen, Thukral & Tagra and Sheba Chhachhi. Located in central<br />
South Delhi, the gallery opened a branch in Berlin in 2008 and a branch in the Oberoi Gurgaon hotel<br />
in 2011.
ROHINI DEVASHER – Colony / 2011, Mixed media on<br />
paper, 60 x 60 inches.<br />
ART GALLERY | NATURE MORTE<br />
ROHINI DEVASHER<br />
(b. 1978)<br />
ROHINI DEVASHER – Proteus / 2011, Mixed media on<br />
paper, 60 x 60 inches.<br />
Rohini Devasher (born 1978) explores the intersection of various branches of science in her art. Biology,<br />
astronomy and quantum mechanics come together in her delicately rendered works on paper,<br />
which fuse photography, drawing and painting. Rohini Devasher lives and works in New Delhi. She<br />
received her MFA in Printmaking from the Winchester School of <strong>Art</strong> in the UK and her BFA from the<br />
College of <strong>Art</strong> in New Delhi. Solo shows of her works have been mounted at Project <strong>88</strong> in Mumbai in<br />
2009 and Nature Morte in New Delhi in 2011. She was awarded a Khoj International <strong>Art</strong>s & Sciences<br />
Residency, as well the INLAKS Fine <strong>Art</strong> Award and a Sarai Associate Fellowship. Her works have been<br />
included in group shows at Nature Morte Berlin, Vadhera Gallery in New Delhi, Green Cardamon and<br />
the British Library in London, and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.<br />
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ART GALLERY | NATURE MORTE<br />
M. PRAVAT<br />
(b. 1972)<br />
M. PRAVAT– Landscape Painting / 2011, Mixed media on canvas, 78 x 72 inches.<br />
M. Pravat (born 1972) creates large-scale paintings that borrow from the languages of architecture,<br />
engineering and digital-imagery. His works explore a process of being “under construction,” perhaps alluding<br />
to something more that remains unrealized. M. Pravat lives and works in New Delhi. He received<br />
both his BFA and MFA degrees from the Faculty of Fine <strong>Art</strong>s, M.S. University, Baroda. He has had solo<br />
shows at both Anant <strong>Art</strong> Gallery and Nature Morte in New Delhi and was the recipient of a Pro Helvetia<br />
<strong>Art</strong>ist Residency in Switzerland in 2010.
MANILROHIT<br />
(1978 & 1985)<br />
MANILROHIT– Elephant Juice / 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 72 inches.<br />
ART GALLERY | NATURE MORTE<br />
ManilRohit are two brothers from New Delhi who work collaboratively (Manil Gupta, born 1978 and<br />
Rohit Gupta, born 1985). The iconography of their paintings is sourced from popular culture: graffiti,<br />
comics, packaging and animation. They employ multiple techniques in a single canvas, creating hysterical<br />
amalgams of painterly surfaces that swallow up a wide variety of imagery. Living and working in New<br />
Delhi, Manil received his BFA in Applied <strong>Art</strong> from Delhi College of <strong>Art</strong> while Rohit received a BA in<br />
English from Delhi University and later concentrated on photography.<br />
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ART GALLERY | OPEN EYED DREAMS<br />
OPEN EYED DREAMS<br />
N N Rimzon<br />
Rajan Krishnan<br />
Zakkir Hussain<br />
Abir Karmakar<br />
Sachin George Sebastian
ART GALLERY | OPEN EYED DREAMS<br />
GALLERY PROFILE<br />
Open Eyed Dreams, a premier art promotion venture, was launched by Dilip Narayanan in 2002. The<br />
initiative that began with a collection from eight artists has today a growing portfolio claiming exclusive<br />
representation from over 40 eminent artists in the country. It has held six major shows and a National<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Meet in Kerala. More exhibitions, tours and camps are scheduled running up to 2009. The objective:<br />
Promote art and artists, going beyond regional borders.<br />
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N. N. RIMZON<br />
(b. 1957)<br />
Rimzon was born in Kakkoor, Kerala in 1957. After a B.A. in Sculpture from the College of Fine <strong>Art</strong>s,<br />
Trivandrum, 1982 he did his M.A. in sculpture at M. S. University, Baroda (1 984). The leftist and radical<br />
background in Kerala and the socio- political strife at the time of the Emergency shaped his sensibilities<br />
along with an awareness of disrupted traditional inheritance locally with its diverse ramifications as well<br />
as on the plane of received modernism and current international trends. Inspired by Ramkinker Baij and<br />
directly, German realist and expressionist figuration of the day, he did exaggeratedly naturalistic and then<br />
distorted figures of human vulnerability and disabling entrapment in wider situations. In 1989 Rimzon<br />
obtained an M.A. with distinction from the Royal College of <strong>Art</strong>, London where he studied on an In<br />
lakhs scholarship, after which he moved to New Delhi permanently.<br />
His idiom has imbibed in a unique manner elements of the Conceptual and Minimalist attitudes through<br />
which he pares down archetypal imagery in order to reach the core of things, rudimentary states and<br />
fine qualities of humanism. This allows for his basic shapes to induce multifarious associations, apparently<br />
opposing or unrelated, but eventually disclosing or rather indicating a reconstruction of meaning<br />
and values. Steering his sculptures arranged in an installation-like space and stimulated by discontinuities,<br />
suggestiveness and contradictions of size, colour, setting etc. he directs the viewer to a complex<br />
experience of his imagining mingled with that of the artist. He relies on indigenous classic art forms of<br />
aesthetic emotive and symbolic nature, along with personal, contemporary, even utilitarian ones. The<br />
approach is essentially post-modernist as well as essentially Indian at a time of cultural and social transition.<br />
His main motifs repeat in related configurations, their meaning dependent on context and titles’<br />
suggestion. Rimzon’s later work rooted in specific classic forms, have a greater simplicity and immediate<br />
power. The Tirthankara-like figure of austerity and spiritual purity placed in a cosmic circle of swords or<br />
tools evokes the eternal duality of violence and materiality contra human aspirations. The earthen pot<br />
contains creative water as the mother and the fertile woman violated by a weapon or charged with energy,<br />
but it can also serve to denote the self and the practice of untouchability. The other steady motifs<br />
are the egg and the lover couple the generative forces and the house of sheltering and of the sacred.
N. N. RIMZON – House under the stars, Charcoal on<br />
paper, 15 x 19 inches.<br />
ART GALLERY | OPEN EYED DREAMS<br />
N. N. RIMZON – Pond at the forest, Charcoal on<br />
paper, 14 x 18 inches.<br />
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RAJAN KRISHNAN – Memory / 2009, Acrylic on canvas, 108 x 72 inches.<br />
RAJAN KRISHNAN<br />
(b. 1967)<br />
Rajan Krishnan was born in 1967, in the Thrissur district of Kerala. Having completed a Bachelor`s degree<br />
in Economics, Krishnan decided to pursue his true love and signed up for a B.F.A (Painting) at the<br />
College of Fine <strong>Art</strong>s, Thiruvananthapuram. He then went on to pursue a Master`s degree at the Faculty<br />
of Fine <strong>Art</strong>s, M.S. University, Baroda. Rajan Krishnan`s art is very sensitive to his immediate natural environment.<br />
The fields and villages of the Kerala of his youth play the role of `principal protagonist` in most<br />
of his works, expressing his deepest aesthetic proclivities. His early works are slightly sentimental in their<br />
depiction of childhood memories of home, but this phase seems to have given way to a more assertive<br />
cynicism that unflinchingly records the sudden and sweeping changes wrought on the landscapes he<br />
has known and loved.
ZAKKIR HUSSAIN – Untitled, Mix media on paper, 96 x 36 inches.<br />
ART GALLERY | OPEN EYED DREAMS<br />
ZAKKIR HUSSAIN<br />
(b. 1970)<br />
Born 1970 in Kerala Zakkir Hussain passed his Bachelor’s Degree in painting from the College of Fine<br />
<strong>Art</strong>s in Trivandrum and Master’s Degree in graphics from the MSU at Vadodara. He taught for a while at<br />
the <strong>Art</strong> College in the city before turning full time to his art practice. The artist’s sensitive portrayal of<br />
contemporary urban milieu with juxtaposition of banal and somewhat unrelated imagery gives his work<br />
a different meaning and its special appeal. His detailed drawings and paintings adorn a touch of fantasy<br />
and fun with subtle undercurrents of uncaring society, politics of religion and resulting violence. His<br />
hybrid figuration in partly human and partly animal creations presents an interesting interface between<br />
the binaries of animate versus inanimate and personal versus public in the narratives as enacted in fine<br />
palette and meticulously executed canvases or paper works. Zakkir’s work has been shown in several<br />
solo and group shows in leading galleries in different part of the world including Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai,<br />
Delhi and New York. Zakkir lives in Kochi and works from his studio in the city.<br />
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ABIR KARMAKAR – Scent II / 2011, Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches.<br />
ABIR KARMAKAR<br />
(b. 1977)<br />
Born in 1977 Abir Karmakar completed his graduation from Rabindra Bharati Universtiy, Kolkata and<br />
his Masters from Faculty of Fine <strong>Art</strong>s, M.S. University, Baroda. In Karmakar’s work, the hired model is<br />
replaced by the image of the artist himself and thereby providing an interesting twist. The artist uses<br />
the language of the media and billboard advertisements, both visually and contextually. Abir has shown<br />
widely in India and abroad.
ART GALLERY | OPEN EYED DREAMS<br />
SACHIN GEORGE<br />
SEBASTIAN<br />
(b. 1985)<br />
SACHIN GEORGE SEBASTIAN – Metropolis & city planners / 2010, Paper collage, 27 x 24 inches, (Set of 3).<br />
Soon after my graduation, I came across a pop up book at a house of used bookstore in Bangalore.<br />
That is when I felt, the need to translate ideas through it. Simplicity in paper as a medium, and geometry<br />
as the tool fell perfectly into place. So I started exploring the idea, I could not have done this in a fixed<br />
job, so I started freelancing. This left me with enough time to learn the art of paper engineering. Within<br />
two years I grasped on paper engineering and found a publisher to fund my books as well. But soon<br />
the need to do more, reach the core of the substances started distracting me. The want to explore the<br />
medium, its properties and applications beyond the two spreads of a book started coming to my mind.<br />
So I kept exploring till I achieved what you see today – ‘A narrative in multiple layers of paper.’<br />
While I was still exploring ideas and doing freelance work – I came across Khoj and was offered an<br />
artist residency there. It was a great learning experience that led me to another thought process from<br />
which, ‘metropolis and city-planners’ were conceived, I had not much information on what art was, but<br />
only an expression of dreamers. Only after this experience I realised that many things that I have been<br />
doing for years are nothing else but narratives of a dreamer in me, which is termed as aesthetics sense<br />
or arts, it was this vast and new door that opened for me and soon after, just a year from there, I got<br />
to exhibit my first expression in public.<br />
My works are result of the collision between things I love (nature, organic beauty etc.) and the things<br />
I resent (industrialization, concrete cityscape with sharp corners and wires running all around blocking<br />
the skylines etc.) The collision brings certain common patterns, a cross-reference that acts as my<br />
inspiration.<br />
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ART GALLERY | PROJECT <strong>88</strong><br />
PROJECT <strong>88</strong><br />
Sandeep Mukherjee<br />
Shreyas Karle
ART GALLERY | PROJECT <strong>88</strong><br />
GALLERY PROFILE<br />
Project <strong>88</strong> was established in downtown Mumbai in 2006 by Sree Goswami. The 4000 square feet<br />
gallery is housed in a century old metal printing press. The gallery supports emerging and established<br />
artists in long-term relationships to facilitate understanding and awareness of their continually evolving<br />
practices in India and in international venues.<br />
Project <strong>88</strong> works with a generation of emerging artists within India who are making innovative, experimental<br />
and ambitious works in all media and modes within a conceptual framework. In a span of five<br />
years, the gallery has evolved along with these artists, adding important mid-career artists from the<br />
region and abroad, on the strength of it’s committed programme.<br />
Exhibitions over the years have included solos by the Raqs Media Collective, Bani Abidi, Sarnath Baner-<br />
jee, Hemali Bhuta, Baptist Coelho, Rohini Devasher, and Bharti Kher among others. Project <strong>88</strong> has also<br />
put up several curated group exhibitions with Japanese, Central Asian and emerging artists. Last year’s<br />
line up included solos by US based artist Sandeep Mukherjee and Pakistan based Huma Mulji. Project<br />
<strong>88</strong> commenced 2012 with major solo of The Otolith Group, supplemented by public film screenings<br />
and discussions prior to the India <strong>Art</strong> Fair 2012 in January. This will be followed by a solo by Pakistan<br />
based Asma Mundrawala.<br />
Project <strong>88</strong> has taken part in several international art fairs such as Hong Kong International <strong>Art</strong> Fair<br />
(2008), Arco Madrid (2009), <strong>Art</strong> Dubai (2009), and India <strong>Art</strong> Summit (2009). The gallery took part in<br />
the “Frame” section of Frieze <strong>Art</strong> Fair in London in October 2009 and was the only Indian gallery to be<br />
selected for this prestigious art fair that year (the second Indian gallery since the inception of the fair).<br />
The gallery presented a solo project of Sarnath Banerjee in the booth and Neha Choksi in the sculpture<br />
park. This was followed by participation in the Hong Kong International <strong>Art</strong> Fair in 2010, with a two<br />
person show comprising works by Rohini Devasher and Huma Mulji. 2011 was an important year for<br />
Project <strong>88</strong>, as it was the first time that the gallery was selected to be part of the main section at the<br />
Hong Kong International <strong>Art</strong> Fair and Frieze, London. Apart from these two important fairs, the gallery<br />
also participated in India <strong>Art</strong> Summit, New Delhi and Fiac – International Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> Fair, Paris.<br />
Many of its artists are in major international collections, biennales, and museum shows.<br />
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SANDEEP MUKHERJEE – Untitled / 2011, Acrylic,<br />
acrylic ink & embossed drawing on duralene, 60 x 66<br />
inches (each).<br />
SANDEEP MUKHERJEE<br />
Sandeep Mukherjee received a B. F. A. from Otis College of <strong>Art</strong> and Design (Los Angeles) and an<br />
M. F. A. from UCLA. He has had solo exhibitions at Sister and Cottage Home (Los Angeles), at the<br />
Margo Leavin Gallery (Los Angeles), at Brennan and Griffin (New York), at Nature Morte Gallery<br />
(New Delhi) and the Pomona College Museum of <strong>Art</strong> (Claremont, CA). Group exhibitions include the<br />
Museum of Contemporary (Los Angeles), the UCLA Hammer Museum (Los Angeles) and the Wattis<br />
Institute for Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>s (San Francisco).<br />
His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> (Los Angeles), the<br />
Museum of Modern <strong>Art</strong> (New York), the Los Angeles County Museum of <strong>Art</strong>, the UCLA Hammer<br />
Museum (Los Angeles) among others. Mukherjee is represented by Brennan and Griffin, New York and<br />
Project <strong>88</strong>, Mumbai.<br />
He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.<br />
SANDEEP MUKHERJEE – Untitled / 2011, Acrylic,<br />
acrylic ink & embossed drawing on duralene, 60 x 66<br />
inches (each).
SHREYAS KARLE<br />
(b. 1981)<br />
SHREYAS KARLE – Kala Ajooba – Living Legend / 2008, Archival print waterford paper.<br />
ART GALLERY | PROJECT <strong>88</strong><br />
Shreyas Karle (born in 1981) received his MVA Part II (Painting) at the MS University, Baroda, 2008. He<br />
completed his diploma in Fine <strong>Art</strong>s (Painting) from LS Raheja School of <strong>Art</strong>, Mumbai, 2002.<br />
Karle ki koshish was Shreyas’s first solo show collaborated by Project <strong>88</strong> and Pundole <strong>Art</strong> Gallery,<br />
Mumbai, 2010. He has participated in several group shows including Keep Drawing, Gallery Espace,<br />
Delhi, 2008, Recent Works at Project<strong>88</strong>, Mumbai, 2008 and EVERYTHING, curated by Krishnamachari<br />
Bose, Amsterdam, 2008. His work was a part of a curated show by Lalit Kala Akademi in Vietnam under<br />
the Cultural Ministry of India and Vietnam, as well as Caturday is a Cleaning Day curated by Gitanjali<br />
Dang at ‘The Loft’, Mumbai, 2009.<br />
Shreyas Karle was a resident artist at Montalvo <strong>Art</strong>s Center- Saratoga (California) with fellow artist<br />
Hemali Bhuta. He was also a part of Bengaluru <strong>Art</strong>ist Residency –one (Bar1) in 2008. He is working as a<br />
co-coordinator for SANDRABH (site specific residencies), and will be a part of the ESSL museum show<br />
for young Indian contemporary artist, Vienna, 2010. He will also be part of the Kochi Biennale, 2012.<br />
The artist currently resides and works in Mumbai.<br />
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ART GALLERY | THE GUILD<br />
THE GUILD<br />
K. G. Subramanyan<br />
Sudhir Patwardhan<br />
Ravi Agarwal<br />
Baiju Parthan<br />
T.V. Santhosh<br />
Riyas Komu<br />
K. P. Reji<br />
Vidya Kamat
ART GALLERY | THE GUILD<br />
GALLERY PROFILE<br />
Established in late 1997, The Guild opened in a small space in the city of Mumbai and over the years<br />
moved to different locations within the city, currently having expanded exhibition space in an old building<br />
with high ceilings, within the Mumbai <strong>Art</strong> District, having other contemporary art galleries nearby.<br />
In 2006 The Guild opened a space in New York (closed in 2011) expanding programme to show works<br />
of artists from the Diaspora and other South Asian Regions.<br />
The focus of the gallery has been to discover and promote young emerging artists, to provide a platform<br />
for discursive practices, innovative ideas and to promote the represented artists at international level,<br />
through various collaborations, art fairs, institutional shows, Biennales and Museums exhibitions. Many<br />
of our represented artists have been shown at Biennales, Museums, educational institutes and other<br />
international galleries.<br />
We continue to believe in using non-conventional ideas and semi institutional role in creating greater<br />
awareness regarding the process of creation. The Guild has been conducting an annual workshop, each<br />
time in a different mode, inviting artists, curators, art critics, writers, and performance artists, to set<br />
up studio in the gallery for the workshop period and have interactive sessions with audiences, other<br />
artist colleagues and art professionals. This has generated a lot of interest, also allowing the gallery<br />
team to spend considerable time with artists and art professionals, enriching the process of art making,<br />
stimulating intellectual debates, ideas, and creating a hotbed for discussions amongst the participants.<br />
The Gallery has published 6 books and many catalogues, accompanying the shows, by distinguished art<br />
critics and writers. A recent publication being on Navjot Altaf’s project residency at New York, which<br />
resulted in an important anthropological document interviewing about 65 inhabitants of New York,<br />
regarding their life, migration and feelings about New York city.<br />
Many of the artists represented by The Guild have participated in significant shows such as at Tate Modern,<br />
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern <strong>Art</strong>, Oslo, Herning Kunstmuseum, Herning, Denmark, MAXXI<br />
National Museum, Rome, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Newark Museum, Centre Pompidou, Frost<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Museum, Florida, The Fourth Moscow Biennale, Venice Biennale, Musee d’arte Contemporain de<br />
Lyon, France, Sydney Biennale, Australia. These artists have also been critically acclaimed in various art<br />
journals, magazines and newspapers.<br />
Since 2010, the gallery has also been actively interested in introducing international artists to Indian<br />
audience and also at art fairs,some of them being, Charwei Tsai from Taiwan (solo), Shadi Ghadirian from<br />
Iran(solo), amongst the curated shows, Shirin Neshat, Barbad Golshiri, Farideh Lashai, Mitra Tabrizian,<br />
Johan Grimonprez, Renata Poljak, Raed Yasin, Munira Al Solh, Khaled Hafez, amongst others.<br />
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ART GALLERY | THE GUILD<br />
K. G. SUBRAMANYAN<br />
(b. 1924)<br />
Painter, sculptor, muralist, K G Subramanyan was born in a village in north Kerala in 1924. While studying<br />
economics at Presidency College, Madras, Subramanyan became involved in the freedom struggle. He<br />
was imprisoned and debarred from government colleges. The turning point of his life came when he<br />
joined Kala Bhavan at Visva Bharati in Santiniketan in 1944. He studied at Kala Bhavan till 1948. Between<br />
1951 and 1959, Subramanyan was a lecturer in painting at the Faculty of Fine <strong>Art</strong>s in Baroda. During<br />
1955 and 1956, he went to the Slade School of <strong>Art</strong> in London to study as a British Council research<br />
scholar. From 1959 to 1961, Subramanyan was deputy director (design) at All India Handloom Board.<br />
Bombay. He continued to be a design consultant till 1966. He went back to Baroda as reader in painting<br />
between 1961 and 1965. From 1966 to 1980; Subramanyan was professor of painting at Baroda. He<br />
went to New York as J D Rockefeller 111 fellow during 1966 and 1967. From 1968 to 1974, he acted<br />
as the dean of the faculty of fine arts, Baroda. In 1975 and 1976, he attended World Craft council meets<br />
as a delegate. In 1976, he was a visiting lecturer at various Canadian Universities. In 1980 Subramanyan<br />
moved back to Santiniketan and till 1989 was professor of painting at Kala Bhavan. During 1987 and<br />
19<strong>88</strong> ‘ he lived at Oxford as Christensen Fellow in St. Catherine’s College. In 1989, he was appointed<br />
professor emeritus at Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati.<br />
A theoretician and art historian, Subramanyan has written extensively on Indian art. His writings have<br />
formed a foundation for the study of contemporary Indian art. He has also written some delightful<br />
fables for children and illustrated them. A man of multifaceted talents, Subramanyan demolished banners<br />
between artist and artisan. He experimented with weaving and toy making. He also reinvested<br />
several mediums earlier used in Indian art. For example, the terracotta mural and glass painting found<br />
a new lease of life with his experiments.The artist gave the human figure a new dimension. Drawing<br />
upon the rich resources of myth, memory and tradition, Subramanyan tempers romanticism with wit<br />
and eroticism. He has received the Kalidas Samman in 1981, the Padma Shree in 1975, a D. Litt. (Honoris<br />
Causa) from the Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta in 1992 and became a Fellow of Kerala Lalit Kala<br />
Akademi in 1993.<br />
K.G. Subramanyan is a major presence on the Indian art scene. His flexibility of expression and richness<br />
of visual language evolve from the diverse materials he works with as painter, muralist, printmaker,<br />
relief-sculptor and designer. In his recent work Subramanyan uses many registers of language to slide<br />
from high seriousness to irony, celebration to subversion, descriptive rendering to lyrical evocation, fact<br />
to metaphor, and from real to surreal with the ingenuity of a consummate craftsman and the alertness<br />
of a nimble thinker.<br />
The book “The Painted platters” by Professor R. Siva Kumar, published by The Guild, takes us on a<br />
special journey into K.G. Subramanyan’s series of work called saras (a genre of ritualistic art within Bengal’s<br />
folk art), documenting and celebrating them.
K. G. SUBRAMANYAN – Untitled / 1924, Gouache on paper, 10.5 x 9.5 inches.<br />
ART GALLERY | THE GUILD<br />
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ART GALLERY | THE GUILD<br />
SUDHIR<br />
PATWARDHAN<br />
(b. 1949)<br />
Born in Pune, Sudhir graduated in medicine from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. He moved<br />
to Mumbai in 1973 after graduation and worked as a Radiologist in Thane from 1975 to 2005.<br />
His first one person show was held by Ebrahim Alkazi’s <strong>Art</strong> Heritage in New Delhi in 1979. Since<br />
then his work has been seen regularly in exhibitions in India and abroad. A monograph on his work,<br />
written by Ranjit Hoskote, was published in 2004. This was followed in 2007 by a book on Patwardhan’s<br />
drawings. A monograph in Marathi, written by Padmakar Kulkarni was published in 2005. In 2008-<br />
2009 Patwardhan curated an exhibition of Indian Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> ‘Vistarnari Kshitije’ / ‘Expanding<br />
Horizons’ which travelled to eight cities in Maharashtra.<br />
Patwardhan’s works are in the permanent collection of National gallery of Modern <strong>Art</strong>, New Delhi<br />
and Mumbai; Roopankar Museum, Bhopal; Jehangir Nicholson Collection, Mumbai; the Peabody Essex<br />
Museum, Salem, USA and other prominent private and public collections.<br />
The artist lives and works in Thane, near Mumbai.
SUDHIR PATWARDHAN – Woman in Crowd-II / 2011, Acrylic on handmade paper,<br />
42 x 54 inches.<br />
ART GALLERY | THE GUILD<br />
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RAVI AGARWAL<br />
Ravi Agarwal is a photographer artist, writer, curator and environmental activist. He explores issues of<br />
urban space, ecology, capital in an interrelated ways working with photographs, video, performance,<br />
on-site installations and public art.<br />
Agarwal has participated in several international shows including Documenta XI (Kassel 2002), ‘Horn<br />
Please,’ Kunstmuseum, Bern, 2007; ‘Indian Highway’ (2009 ongoing); ‘Generation in Transition,’ National<br />
Gallery of <strong>Art</strong>, Warsaw; ‘The Eye is a Lonely Hunter, Images of Humankind,’ at Fotofestival Mannheim_<br />
ludwigshafen_Heidelberg; ‘After the Crash’ at Museo Orto Botanico, Rome; his recent solo show being<br />
‘Flux: dystopia, utopia, heterotopia,’ Gallery Espace, New Delhi. Agarwal recently co-curated a twin city<br />
public art project, Yamuna-Elbe.Public.<strong>Art</strong>.Outreach. He writes extensively on ecological issues, and is<br />
also founder of the leading Indian environmental NGO, Toxics Link. He is an engineer by training.
RAVI AGARWAL – Down and Out, Digital archival<br />
prints from transparencies, 30 x 20 inches.<br />
RAVI AGARWAL – Down and Out, Digital archival prints from transparencies,<br />
20 x 30 inches.<br />
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BAIJU PARTHAN<br />
(b. 1956)<br />
Baiju Parthan has an eclectic academic background. Along with degrees in Painting, Botany, Philosophy,<br />
and a Post-grad diploma in Comparative mythology, he has done studies in computer game level design<br />
at the Pratt Institute Manhattan USA. Some of his selected group shows include ‘India’, curated by Pieter<br />
Tjabbes and Tereza de Arruda, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; ‘Constructed<br />
Realities’, curated by Gayatri Sinha at The Guild, Mumbai, 2010; ‘Go See India’, part of India-Sweden<br />
Cultural Exchange Program; presented by Emami Chisel, Kolkata at Aakriti <strong>Art</strong> Gallery, Kolkatta, Vasa<br />
Konsthal and Gallery-Scandinavia,Gothenburg; ‘The Intuitive: Logic Revisted’, from the Osians Collection<br />
at The World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland; ‘Looking Glass: The Existence of Difference’, Twenty<br />
Indian Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>ists presented by Religare <strong>Art</strong>s Initiative, New Delhi in collaboration with<br />
American Centre, British Council, Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi; ‘The 11th Hour: An<br />
Exhibition of Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> from India / Diaspora’, Tang Contemporary, Beijing. Parthan’s recent<br />
new media installations include Arpeggio for Abbe Faria,- Photography Installation, Benedictine Museum,<br />
Fecamp, France; ‘Liquid memory’ new media Installation- Galerie Christian Hosp, Nassereith, Austria.His<br />
recent solo shows are ‘Dislocation: Milljunction Part 2’, Aicon Gallery, London; ‘Milljunction: Paintings and<br />
Photo-Works by Baiju Parthan’, Aicon Gallery, New York; Liquid memory + Rant - Inter-media show<br />
Vadehra Gallery New Delhi.
BAIJU PARTHAN – Manifesto-Engineered Fruit / 2011, 3D rendering - lenticular<br />
print, 36 x 36 inches.<br />
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T. V. SANTHOSH<br />
(b. 1968)<br />
Born in Kerala, T.V. Santhosh obtained a B. F. A in painting from Santiniketan and Masters in Sculpture<br />
from MS University, Baroda. Selected museum shows include India, curated by Pieter Tjabbes and<br />
Tereza de Arruda, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 4th Moscow Biennale of<br />
Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>, Rewriting Worlds, curated by Peter Weibel; In Transition New <strong>Art</strong> from India, Surrey<br />
Museum of <strong>Art</strong>, Canada; Collectors’ Stage: Asian Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> from Private Collections, Singapore<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Museum, Singapore; Crossroads: India Escalate, Prague Biennale 5, 2011; The Silk Road, New Chinese,<br />
Indian and Middle Eastern <strong>Art</strong> from The Saatchi Gallery at Tri Postal, Lille, France; Vancouver Biennale<br />
curated by Barrie Mowatt; Dark Materials curated by David Thorp, G S K Contemporary show, at Royal<br />
Academy of <strong>Art</strong>s, London; India Xianzai, MOCA, Shanghai, China (2009); Passage to India, Part II: New<br />
Indian <strong>Art</strong> from the Frank Cohen Collection, at Initial Access, Wolverhampton, UK (2009); Aftershock at<br />
Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> Norwich at Sainsbury Centre, England in 2007 and Continuity and Transformation<br />
Museum show promoted by Provincia di Milano, Italy.
T. V. SANTHOSH – At the Cost of Many / 2012, Water colour on paper,<br />
60 x 40 inches.<br />
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RIYAS KOMU<br />
(b. 1971)<br />
Riyas Komu graduated with Painting as his specialization and has since than extended himself to sculpture,<br />
photography and video installations. Komu was a participant in the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007 curated<br />
by Robert Storr. Other museum exhibits include Shadow Lines curated by Alia Swastika (Indonesia)<br />
and Suman Gopinath (India) at Jogja Biennale, Indonesia; Paris-Delhi-Bombay, Centre Pompidou, Paris;<br />
Crossroads India Escalate, Prague Biennale5; Concurrent India, Helsinki <strong>Art</strong> Museum Tennis Palace,<br />
Finland; India Awakens: Under the Banyan Tree, Essl Museum, Austria; Finding India, <strong>Art</strong> for the New<br />
Century, Museum of Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>, Taipei; Emerging Asian <strong>Art</strong>ists, as part of <strong>Art</strong> Gwangju 2010,<br />
KDJ Convention Center, Gwangju; Indian Highway, Herning Kunstmuseum, Herning, Denmark; India<br />
Contemporary, GEM, Museum of Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>, Hague; India Now: Contemporary Indian <strong>Art</strong><br />
Between Continuity and Transformation, Provincia di Milano, Milan, Italy; India Xianzai: Contemporary<br />
Indian <strong>Art</strong>, Museum of Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> (MOCA), Shanghai; Modern India, organized by Institut<br />
Valencià d’<strong>Art</strong> Modern (IVAM) and Casa Asia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture at Valencia,<br />
Spain. His recent solo shows include 2010 Subrata to Cesar, Gallery Maskara, Mumbai in association<br />
with The Guild, Mumbai and Safe to Light, Azad <strong>Art</strong> Gallery, Tehran.
RIYAS KOMU – Untitled / 2011, Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches.<br />
RIYAS KOMU – Untitled / 2011, Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches.<br />
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K. P. REJI<br />
(b. 1972)<br />
K. P. Reji received his M.F.A and B.F. A in painting from the M.S. University, Vadodara. He is the receipient<br />
of the Sanskriti Award for the Young <strong>Art</strong>ist-2007, Sanskriti Foundation, New Delhi. K. P. Reji has<br />
participated in several major exhibitions including Tough Love, curated by Shaheen Merali, Plataforma<br />
Revólver, Lisbon, Portugal; Snow curated by Ranjit Hoskote; Horn Please: Narratives in Contemporary<br />
Indian <strong>Art</strong>, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; Tolstoy Farm: Archive of Utopia, curated by Gayatri Sinha,<br />
New Delhi; Roots in the Air, Branches Below: Modern & Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> from India, San Jose Museum<br />
of <strong>Art</strong>, San Jose; CIGE 2009, China and SHContemporary 08’, Shanghai represented by The Guild,<br />
Mumbai; <strong>Art</strong> Asia Miami, 08, represented by The Guild <strong>Art</strong> USA Inc. His recent solo exhibitions being<br />
With a Pinch of Salt was held at Nature Morte, New Delhi in collaboration with The Guild and ‘Just<br />
Above My Head’, The Guild, Mumbai.
K. P. REJI – School / 2011, Oil on canvas, 84 x 60 each (triptych).<br />
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VIDYA KAMAT<br />
Vidya Kamat holds a degree in fine arts and a doctoral degree in Comparative Mythology. She is<br />
associated with the University of Mumbai as an adviser and research scholar for the subject of ancient<br />
Indian myth and culture. Her art practice articulates the concern and conflict of traditional Indian society<br />
that is coming to terms with urban life. Kamat questions the role of myths and its implications in current<br />
society that has instigated intolerance and violence in modern India. Kamat’s select shows include,<br />
Palimpsests curated by Niru Ratnam, Aicon gallery New York; Through Other Eyes: Contemporary <strong>Art</strong><br />
from South Asia, curated by Gerard Mermoz, Herbert <strong>Art</strong> gallery & Musuem,Coventry, England; Indian<br />
Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> Palais Benedictine de Fecamp Paris, curated by Ranjit Hoskote and Supriya Banerjee;<br />
Ethics of Encounters, Contemporary art from India and Thailand, Gallery Soulflower, Bangkok, curated<br />
by Pandit Chanrochanakit and Brian Curtin; Changing Skin curated By Marta Jakimowicz; I am a Saint,<br />
New Delhi, curated by Johny ML; Intimate Lives, by Anupa Mehta.
VIDYA KAMAT – For the Love of my People / 2011,<br />
Play money, strings, 108 x 48 inches.<br />
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