NEWS
The Art of Halahala
- By Sri Sri Appupen
Gallery Five Forty Five, Bangalore, presents a show of
original art, covers, and prints from the graphic novel, Legends of Halahala.
The Art of Halahala is designed by Sri
Sri Appupen an alter ego/ alias of artist George Mathen.
Mathen has dabbled in various mediums and advertising
before choosing to tell stories without the use of words, and depicting the
entire narration through pictures and intricate imagery in his comics, and
graphic novels. The word Halahala is derived by the artist’s liking of the
poison Lord Shiva ingested to save the
world from being destroyed. Mathen has incorporated a world of Halahala in his
novels becasue it has a sense of the dark in it.
The show displays his recent work from the silent graphic
novel, ‘Legends of Halahala’ and the
exquisite artwork will be on view from the 10th of May 2013 to the 7th of June
2013.
The Pepper Cross – the colonial routes
(Pepper Cross by Subodh Kerkar)
The Pepper House, Fort
Kochi, along with Art Estate present a show of recent works by Goan artist
Subodh Kerkar. The show titled, ‘The Pepper Cross’ displays the artist’s works
which are primarily inspired by the ocean. In this show, Subodh displays his recent
sculptures, installations works and photography works which explore the role
played by the ocean in intercontinental trade, cultural diffusion and how world
over, civilizations flourished by these movements.
Subodh’s works are
mnemonic tools for referencing history, in a varied array of subjects related
to oceanic expeditions and ancient trade.
The show is open for
view from the 12th of May 2013 to the 20th of June 2013.
Homelands - be
it ever so humble
The British Council and
Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai presents ‘ Homelands’ a 21st century approach
to the concepts of home, away and places
in between. Homelands is an exhibition which explores the cultural relations
and relationships between oneself and any place in the world. It addresses
issues of contested territories, transition and socio-political changes faced.
This art exhibition displays works of contemporary artists from the British
Council collection, interpreting their homes away from their homeland.
The show is curated by
Latika Gupta and 28 artists are part of this show. British artists like Mona
Hatoum, Anthony Haughley, Zineb Sedira, Suki Dhanda to name a few.
The show also comprises
of talk sessions and workshops on curatorial practices to reflect on ideas of
Mumbai as a home.
The show is on view till
the 9th of June 2013.
Call for Artists
- Liquid Cities and Temporary Identities
International ArtExpo, Bari, Italy has announced a
call for artists in the field of Photography, Video Art, Computer Graphics,
Painting, Performance art, for an International art exhibition, 2013, which has
a specific concept mainly ‘Liquid Cities and Temporary Identities’ which
basically deals with hybridization between identities and urban
development. People, societies, their
backgrounds and inputs, creates hybridizations and this dynamic state of a
world and its nuances and intricate networkings is what the show focuses on
highlighting, through the art works on display.
The deadline for the applications for this exhibition
is the 21st of May 2013. The participants need to send in their CV/ biography,
videography, and some still images to lucacurci@lucacurci.com. The number of
artworks is unlimited.
The exhibition is to be held in Espoonsilta Gallery ,
Finland from the 9th of June to the 16th of June 2013.
(News Reports by Sushma Sabnis)
PROFILE
Masquerades in Painting- Parag Sonarghare
(Parag Sonarghare)
Baroda based Parag Sonarghare has curly hairs and he
and his works look exotic amongst the straight haired people. JohnyML does not want to make a racist
and racial statement here. But curiosity has taken him to talk about his hair.
Starting from hair, the writer scans through the works of Parag Sonarghare and
says that this artist has a lot of possibilities to develop as a genuine artist
in the coming years.
I am looking here for a silly generalization: Do curly
haired people make good art? I could see a lot of you getting up on your feet
and saying that it is absolutely a rubbish statement. Let me tell you, I am not
making any statement or judgement here. I have seen so many curly haired boys
weirdly imaginative and severely original. So are straight haired ones. But I
have not curiously looked at them. The fact is that puffed up curly hairs
invite attention, in our country where straight hair is an Aryan quality, curly
haired ones look exotic. Parag Sonarghare has curly hairs and he looks exotic.
His works, I find are interesting. I insist that even if he had straight hairs
and still doing the same kind of works, I would have considered him and his
works for critical consideration.
This young man, Parag Sonarghare, having obtained his
bachelors from Nagpur Fine Arts College, went to do his post graduation in
painting at the fine arts faculty, M.S.University, Baroda. His works show that
he belongs to a cusp generation that has been oscillating between the allure of
mediatic realism and the more rebellious and fashionable cutting edge art.
Parag is one of those rare young artists who have found a mid way between these
two pulls. His painterly language has a lot to do with mediatic realism aka
photo realism. But his thematic choices are different; he brings the
sophisticated and the mundane on the same pictorial plane. He bridges the gap
between the educated and the uneducated, the included and the excluded. He uses
his own body as a performative platform and in the paintings he covers the body
surface with tattoo like images. He incorporates digital art, painting,
performance and installation in most of his two dimensional works without moving
away from the conventional painterly methods.
Parag is the protagonist in most of his works. But like a
Bahuroopi, he lets his body to mediate so many other characters and narratives.
He evokes surprises by juxtaposing his painted body along with the normally
clad people. He has a dancer’s choreographic sense; even when he stands straight
and looks directly into the eyes of onlookers, his painted body vibrates with a
sense of rhythm. However, he does not celebrate the male ego or virility in
these paintings. By over painting his body, he divests his gender authorities
and assumes a gender which goes beyond all possible genders. In some of his
works, Parag fragments his body into pieces, while each piece tries its best to
be a part of the whole. He looks like a sculpture that has been vandalized by
time and society.
Society is a concern for Parag. But his anxieties are not
ridden with angst or anger. It has a sort of detachment tinged with a sense of
humour. While portraying himself as a wandering wall of pictures, a fragmented
sculpture of sorts, he paints the portraits of ordinary people who have come to
his life by various ways. They are from the margins of the society, often
excluded from high art (recently inclusion has become quite a fashion for many
but Parag had started it much before it became a fashion). Also he identifies
with dogs; the love for canines does not come from his snobbish love for pets.
He makes them his alternative self and indirectly tells that an artist lives a
dog’s existence. He is a friend of all, he guards the society, he loves the
masters but he is always treated as a dog.
Parag Sonarghare does performances and other collective
activities with artists and friends. Often he takes the experience of these
into his paintings. His has created an iconic image for himself and it is yet
to become a part of our contemporary art history. The major conflict would be
between photo realism and his aspiration to develop an alternative language for
himself. So far his efforts have been successful. In the coming years, let’s
hope Parag would come up with many more interesting works.
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