Information & Artist Biographies.pdf - Nottingham Asian Arts Council

Additional Information
Pardhan Gond Paintings – A partnership between the New Art Exchange and the Adivasi Arts Trust.
(www.adivasiartstrust.org)
Venkat Raman Singh Shyam and Rajendra Kumar Shyam are two accomplished Gond artists that will
be coming as special guests from Madhya Pradesh, in the heart of tribal India, for a special event at
the New Art Exchange, Nottingham. They are coming with collections of their beautiful narrative
paintings that are have been created painstakingly by hand. While once artists of this little known
indigenous community used natural earthy shades to paint auspicious designs for festivals and family
occasions on the walls and floors of their traditional mud huts, they are now perfectly adept at creating
masterpieces with modern materials, bright acrylic colours and ink. Pardhan Gond paintings tell
fantastic stories that also contain simple wisdom and often reflect on nature. Each painting is unique
and eminently collectable.
Creative workshops have been organised at the New Art Exchange on the themes of this cross
cultural event that has received support from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and the British
Council to bring the artists together with young people and digital professionals from Britain to explore
new ways of understanding and celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the Pardhan Gonds.
Animation
Working with the Gond artists and animator from the Adivasi Arts Trust, Tara Douglas, participants will
try out ways of bringing Gond artwork to life in animation using simple techniques of 2D puppet
animation. The workshop will include a screening of the first Gond animation film “The Best of the
Best”.
Automata
Professional kinetic artist and tutor in theatre design tutor at the Rose Bruford College in London,
Stephen Guy, will guide participants in adapting the 2 dimensional designs of the Gond art for 3
dimensional moving sculptures.
Storytelling
Hear the wonderful oral storytelling traditions of the Gonds vividly brought to life by an experienced
storyteller Seema Anand. Ideal for families.
Presentation by Saurabh Gupta
Graphic Designer Saurabh Gupta has been developing ways of adapting Gond painting techniques
for commercial design. He will be giving a presentation of his work and showing how he makes digital
brushes.

Biographies
VENKAT RAMAN SINGH SHYAM
Venkat was born in 1970 to a humble Pardhan Gond family living in the village Sejohra, in eastern
Madhya Pradesh. He began painting at the age of ten, and for five years worked as an apprentice
under his uncle, the late Gond master artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. The most innovative and
experimental of Jangarh’s artistic successors, Venkat has worked in a variety of media and styles,
ranging from figurative and naturalistic drawings and acrylic paintings on canvas and silk, to more
decorative work in papier maché, ceramic tiles, glass, aluminium and sheet iron. He has done
ambitious commissions for India’s Taj Hotel Group, and recently completed a series on the Mumbai
terrorist attacks of November 2008—which he personally witnessed while visiting the Taj Hotel on
business. Venkat also organized the impromptu team of fellow Gond artists who painted cells for the
UK-produced ‘The Best of the Best’ animated film.
Venkat’s work has been collected and exhibited internationally (this is his third exhibition-related trip
to Europe, and in April 2010 he will have a solo exhibition in Boston). Despite such globalized
exposure, he retains a deep commitment to his Pardhan Gond cultural heritage, which he celebrates
through his depictions of traditional subject matter. He draws inspiration from his personal memories
of growing up in different village communities, listening to tribal elders recount traditional myths and
oral histories (which he is now recording), and photographing Gond festivals, ceremonies and daily
life.
RAJENDRA SHYAM
Rajendra Shyam was born in 1974 in the remote village of Patangarh, in the jungle of eastern Madhya
Pradesh, central India. As a child he was compelled to give up his education so as to help support his
family, by doing daily wage labour on road construction. In 1996, his uncle—the seminal Gond master
artist Jangarh Singh Shyam—recognized Rajendra’s artistic talents and encouraged him to work as
his apprentice in Bhopal. He has subsequently pursued his own career as an independent artist.
Although he has participated in many exhibitions in India (e.g., at New Delhi’s Crafts Museum, and
Bhopal’s Swaraj Bhavan, Bharat Bhavan, and Adivasi Lok Kala Parishad), this is the first significant
display of his work abroad.
Rajendra draws inspiration from his memory of traditional stories, learned during his rural youth and
childhood. It was then that his artistic talents were first recognized by his family and community, who
admired his renderings of dignas—auspicious designs painted on walls and floors. Since moving to
Bhopal he has adopted modern media, especially ink on paper and acrylics on canvas. His wife
Sushila often assists him in filling in the details of his work, a practice customary among Pardhan
Gond artists.

The Evolution of Contemporary Pardhan Gond Art
This exhibition presents a selection of paintings by two contemporary Gond tribal artists from central
India: Venkat Raman Singh Shyam and Rajendra Shyam. These paintings and drawings can be seen
both as representative of their individual styles, and as fine examples of a larger, recently evolving
indigenous art movement.
Venkat and Rajendra belong to their tribe’s Pardhan clan, which traditionally provides the larger Gond
community with professional Bardic priests. They also are members of the extended family now
recognized for transforming sacred Gond myths and stories into iconic
and narrative imagery. In 1981, their uncle—Jangarh Singh Shyam—became the first Pardhan Gond
to depict their tribal deities using modern media: government talent scouts visited his village,
appreciated one of his murals painted with natural pigments, and encouraged him to experiment with
poster paints on commercial paper. He was then invited to move to Bhopal (the capital of his native
state, Madhya Pradesh), where he explored and mastered various media—ranging from silkscreen
prints to acrylics on canvas. Jangarh soon received prominent mural commissions and international
renown, including invitations to participate in exhibitions in Paris and Japan. He also identified
talented members of his family and clan, who he encouraged to move to Bhopal to serve as studio
assistants, and—depending on their abilities—to develop distinctive styles of their own. In time, some
of these apprentices, like his nephews Venkat and Rajendra, have become recognized as
accomplished artists in their own right.
Although Jangarh Singh Shyam tragically committed suicide in Japan in 2001, the art movement he
initiated continues to flourish—especially here in the UK, where over the past decade other Pardhan
Gond artists have been invited to paint murals (e.g., at Islington’s Masala Zone Restaurant), exhibit
their work (at various private galleries and public museums—such as the Rebecca Hossack Art
Gallery and the Museum
of London), and have been celebrated for their children’s books illustrations (available through
www.tarabooks.com). Most remarkable of all has been their foray into animated films, which began
with a 2006 collaboration between the Scotland based company West Highland Animation and an
impromptu team of Gond artists—including Venkat and Rajendra—which produced a delightful short
animated film entitled “The Best of the Best” (see http://www.talleststory.com). Inspired by a traditional
Gond tale, this film incorporates music and hand painted cells by Gond artists. Its popularity with a
broad spectrum of audiences (the film soundtrack is available in English, Gaelic, Hindi as well as in
Gondi and other tribal languages) led to the establishment of the London-based Adivasi Art Trust, a
non profit organization dedicated to advancing recognition of Gond art in
general, and the production of similar animated films perpetuating India’s rich tribal heritage in
particular.
Thus this exhibition of artworks by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam and Rajendra Shyam serves as one
of a growing number of public celebrations of a tribal culture whose creative genius still flourishes by
blending indigenous traditions with contemporary media.
- John H. Bowles
Art Historian and Critic